$15,000 Reward for Missing Haul Road Hunter Steve Keel - OP updated to show locations

[CorbLand]

That is crazy to think in less than 1.5 miles a dude just straight disappeared.

One would think with a grizzly attack there would be some signs. Torn clothes, blood, disturbed area, something.

 

[long hunter]

Aliens

 

[Cj0n3s12]

Sad story for sure.. Crazy to think in that short of a distance he's vanished.. although, Alaska has never seen very forgiving..

 

[Broomd]

That is crazy to think in less than 1.5 miles a dude just straight disappeared.

One would think with a grizzly attack there would be some signs. Torn clothes, blood, disturbed area, something.

Completely agree. .6 of a mile, nuts. Other than rolling hills, visibility on tundra is obvious and everything stands out like a sore thumb.
This whole thing is baffling. I lean to the grizz scenario, but even then there would be clothing and breadcrumbs scattered of a struggle/attack.
Was the guy armed when he left his camp solo?

Edit...a few details from FB.
UPDATE TWO: I’ve just spoken with the family of Brian Collins.
He is the man who was camping with Steve Keel.
The two are good friends and have gone on hunting trips together many times in the past.
The family tells me Collins is devastated over his missing friend.
At this hour he is with Keel’s two sons at the campsite in remote northern Alaska and they are organizing a ground search.
They hope to make contact with someone with dogs to help in the effort.
And both helicopters and planes are expected to be up Friday.
Collins told his family after Keel disappeared Saturday he thought he might have become lost.
Collins told his family he fired his gun into the air hoping Keel would respond from a distance and find his way back, but he did not.
So Collins decided to hike back to the van on the road hoping to find Keel there.
He wasn’t and by then it was late so Collins stayed at the van and hoped he’d return to the campsite in the morning and find Keel back in his tent.
Of course, he was not.
That is when Collins used a satellite emergency beeper to contact authorities.
Right now he says he is at a loss to explain what happened.
At this point he could be lost … had a medical emergency … fallen in a crevasse or sink bog.
Authorities say, at this point, there is no evidence of foul play.
——-
UPDATE: Investigators tell me when Keel left the campsite he was in his typical hiking outfit and carrying a Glock .45, a compass and his cellphone.
Of course, there is no signal out there.
I understand back at the camp they did have a satellite phone.

 

[Haro450]

I was up there the 1st two weeks in august this year hunting. We saw several grizzly's in this area of the haul road. 7 that I can think of with 6 miles or so. We killed a caribou between the river and the road and there where 4 grizzly's fighting over the carcass the next day. That kill sight is within 6 miles of this.

 

[String&stick]

Hope they find something to give the family closure. This is another reason my inreach is always on me and always on. If nothing else it should help my family have some closure in locating my remains should tragedy strike.

 

[Kevin Dill]

A question I would have: Why did he drop his pack just over 1/2 mile from camp on open tundra?

 

[thinhorn_AK]

A question I would have: Why did he drop his pack just over 1/2 mile from camp on open tundra?

I was wondering the same thing. Maybe he had meat in it and figured he'd leave it away from camp? otherwise it wouldn't make much sense to leave your day gear 1/2 mile away.....unless....he was faking his own death and needed a reason to get away.

 

[DLIP]

OP updated to show approx locations.

 

[mooster]

Another post on another social media site indicated they left the pack w/meat out of camp intentionally to be safe.

 

[Kevin Dill]

I think it would be extremely difficult to fake your own death and not have that discovered very quickly in those circumstances...unless you had help. Just seems unlikely.

Had no GPS mark on the pack location so he was hoping to spot it. Was the pack found intact and undisturbed?

Likeliest scenario to me is he didn't locate or recover the pack for some reason...got disoriented...walked the wrong way...further disoriented...and covered some number of miles before succumbing to accident, exposure or predation. Remains yet to be discovered. Camo clothing and probable deterioration or predation of remains could make discovery very difficult or unlikely from the air.

Less likely to me but possible: He intentionally contributed to his own disappearance and/or demise for unknown reasons.

 

[kpk]

One of these posts stated he had a compass....if he was disoriented wouldn't he just walk east and get back to the road? to disappear on a .6 mile walk is crazy.

 

[mooster]

also said he had a phone w/ch likely has a compass and gps capability. many of us use our phone for OnX, Gaia, Caltopo - other GPS app's that could have been utilized for navigation.

 

[hh76]

I don't know anything about that area, but I can imagine scenarios that can make finding an injured person difficult. Years ago my brother an I were walking along a small ravine when he slipped and slid a couple yards. He came to rest somewhat wedged under a downed popple tree. With the branches and leaves that were piled around it was like he just dissapeared. He was fine, but I remember joking that if he had been alone, and had been knocked out, no way we would have found him in a quick search. Not really a big deal in our situation, but one of those things that make you realize weird things happen.

Good luck to the search parties, it would be rough for the family to have no idea.

 

[Kevin Dill]

The use of a compass or nav device only works as long as you believe what it's telling you. If you're disoriented, confused or hypothermic it's very easy to disbelieve a device. I've seen guys totally discount a compass and walk the wrong way. The biggest mistake often made is to wait until one is completely disoriented before employing a device, and then not trusting what it tells you.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I think it would be extremely difficult to fake your own death and not have that discovered very quickly in those circumstances...unless you had help. Just seems unlikely.

Had no GPS mark on the pack location so he was hoping to spot it. Was the pack found intact and undisturbed?

Likeliest scenario to me is he didn't locate or recover the pack for some reason...got disoriented...walked the wrong way...further disoriented...and covered some number of miles before succumbing to accident, exposure or predation. Remains yet to be discovered. Camo clothing and probable deterioration or predation of remains could make discovery very difficult or unlikely from the air.

Less likely to me but possible: He intentionally contributed to his own disappearance and/or demise for unknown reasons.

I think youre probably right. For some reason it just reminded me of a story I read years ago about a guy and his daughter who were trying to escape from a cult. They parked their car by some lava tubes in new mexico and people just assumed they had gotten lost in the caves and died when they had really never even gone in the caves.

 

[HuntHarder]

The use of a compass or nav device only works as long as you believe what it's telling you. If you're disoriented, confused or hypothermic it's very easy to disbelieve a device. I've seen guys totally discount a compass and walk the wrong way. The biggest mistake often made is to wait until one is completely disoriented before employing a device, and then not trusting what it tells you.

First time I used a digital compass on my GPS, it was raining something fierce. My buddy and I both swore the pickup was this way even tho, our compass said complete opposite. We immediately dismissed the ( pos) digital compass and went the direction we both swore on. An hour later, none of the terrain looked familiar. So we decided to trust the digital compass, sure as shit took us straight back to the pickup. Lesson learned

 

[YellCoAR]

People will start to talk crazy about what happened. What ifs in all directions. Truth is this is not the first time someone disappeared unexplained while hunting. I will bet it will not be the last time it happens either. We as hunters take the risk every time we leave the safe places. I know if it was me at least I went doing something I love.

 

[OXN939]

Likeliest scenario to me is he didn't locate or recover the pack for some reason...got disoriented...walked the wrong way...further disoriented...and covered some number of miles before succumbing to accident, exposure or predation.

100% agree. I shot a bull less than 10 miles from where this search area is in '18, and sent my buddy back to camp with the first load of meat while I finished doing the rest as the conditions were deteriorating... he showed back up about an hour later, never having found camp, covered in sweat, completely disoriented. Viz was about 50 yards by that point and an arctic gale was forming. If he hadn't run back into the kill site by dumb luck, he probably would not have survived. Rainfall that night was torrential and temps in the 30s... bad combo. For anyone who hasn't been up there, there are no trees of any kind and much of the tundra looks very similar.

Thoughts and prayers, that whole situation sucks.

 

[M-Wig]

I don't feel like I have that great a sense of direction so I usually trust what my apps tell me. Scouting a new area with a buddy and we were trying to get back to camp. My gut was telling me I was going the wrong direction. I said the OnX has to be wrong and started back the opposite direction. Sure enough we made it to camp. I believe the issue was my compass not being oriented correctly on my phone.

I usually hunt thick brush with very few openings. I've gotten completely turned around trying to weave my way and fight through thick stuff. I've often wondered which is more disorienting; very thick brush, or wide open plain.