Search launched for Yellowstone worker missing for 6 days in remote part of park

A search and rescue effort is ongoing in Yellowstone National Park after an employee went missing last week on a trip through the backcountry.

Austin King, a 22-year-old concession worker at Yellowstone, was last heard from on Sept. 17, when `officials say he called friends and family from the summit of Eagle Peak. Standing at more than 11,300 feet, Eagle Peak is the highest point in the national park and located in its extremely remote southeastern corner, several miles from the eastern shores of Yellowstone Lake.

The National Park Service is circulating a missing person flier for King, which includes two images of the hiker and describes some features that could help identify him. According to the flier, King is 6 feet tall with brown hair and hazel eyes. He wore a black sweatshirt and gray pants and carried a dark colored backpack when he disappeared, which appears in one of the two images. King also wears glasses and has tattoos.

King vanished during a 7-day backcountry trip. A boat dropped King off on Sept. 14 at Terrace Point, along the southeast arm of the lake, the National Park Service said. Two days later, he spoke to a park ranger at Howell Creek cabin in the nearby backcountry, which was not on his intended route. At the time, King was planning to send the night at a campsite in the area before climbing Eagle Peak on Tuesday. 

When King last made contact with anyone, he had reached the top of Eagle Peak. He described fog, rain, sleet, hail and windy conditions while on the summit, according to the park service.

Search operations began when King failed to show up for his boat pickup near the lake’s southeast arm last Friday. On Sunday, the park service said more than 20 ground searchers, two helicopters, unmanned air systems and a search dog team were focusing on the area around Eagle Peak. Search teams from Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks as well as Wyoming’s Park County and Teton County were casting a wider net as they looked for King in the areas around Eagle Pass Mountain Creek Trail, Eagle Creek Trailhead and Shoshone National Forest. 

The national park service has asked for the public’s help as they noted that anyone traveling through the backcountry near Eagle Peak since Sept. 14 could have seen king. People with information about his whereabouts should contact the Yellowstone Interagency Communications Center.