Missing hunters in Colorado

[thegrouse]

Prayers sent for their safe hunt

 

[Steve300xcw]

Honestly, I never experienced (or noticed) anyone caring about me or what I did until that point in my life.

Looking back on it, I should have at least told people where I was going. Back then, I did what I wanted, when I wanted, with no regrets.

I'm still doing that. How do you tell somebody where you are going, if you dont even know

 

[HairyScandinavian]

I'm still doing that. How do you tell somebody where you are going, if you dont even know

"OK honey, I'll be in Wyoming... somewhere in Wyoming."
When are you coming back?
"Some time in October, maybe?"

 

[Hnthrdr]

Im completely ignorant to CO and have only spent time in Wyoming western hunting. Is that area of Colorado really remote enough to get completely lost? Closest I've come to CO is hunting the Sierra Madres on the Colorado border and you couldn't get lost down there if you were trying to.

Sent from my SM-G990U using Tapatalk

Man I had a full S&R response near my cabin in central Co… ummm there are 3-4 major road systems, trail systems and creeks. They were lost for like 28 hours a mere mile from a major road… people can really get turned around if they aren’t used to an area or terrain

 

[fmyth]

Im completely ignorant to CO and have only spent time in Wyoming western hunting. Is that area of Colorado really remote enough to get completely lost? Closest I've come to CO is hunting the Sierra Madres on the Colorado border and you couldn't get lost down there if you were trying to.

Sent from my SM-G990U using Tapatalk

You can get lost in a sudden white out. I'd hunted the same area 6 times during archery and felt confident in my ability to navigate by visual landmarks. Went back for my first rifle hunt in the area. After hunting all morning I hiked back to the UTV and dropped all of my gear to drive back to camp. Then noticed a herd on a hillside 2 miles away and hastily decided to go after them on foot. When i got within a mile it started to snow hard. I made it to where they "were" and it was snowing too hard to continue so I turned back. After hiking for a while my tracks were snowed over and I couldn't see any landmarks to navigate. I reached for my phone which is tethered to my inreach and used to navigate in the dark. That's when I realized my inreach was in the cup holder of the UTV. Because I was in a hurry I'd forgotten turn tracking on in OnX. Luckily I had pinned where i had parked the UTV nearby the day before on OnX. I hiked out to that waypoint and then followed the road to my UTV. Without the phone and OnX I would have been in trouble.

 

[sndmn11]

The San Luis is the dumping, maybe hunting, grounds of CO's most active serial killer(s).

Also the last known Grizz.

Also the most active Sasquatch.

 

[huntingdad]

"OK honey, I'll be in Wyoming... somewhere in Wyoming."
When are you coming back?
"Some time in October, maybe?"

I literally have done this with my wife. In Colorado and in Kansas. And she always says “don’t come back without fresh meat for the freezer”. I do check in though. Lol

 

[Steve300xcw]

people can really get turned around if they aren’t used to an area or terrain

There's a ridge that I hunt a few times a year. I have never hunted it without getting turned around. The first time we passed the truck by less than a 100 yards twice, and came out on the wrong side of the mountain twice. We'd still be up there looking for the truck if somebody hadnt stopped and gave us a ride

Ever since then I turn on the gps if I'm in that area. I have argued with that damned thing multiple times, as there is no way I'm where it says I am.

Dunno what it is about that lil area, but it plays with with your mind. Never really had that issue anywhere else

 

[Chris in TN]

Im completely ignorant to CO and have only spent time in Wyoming western hunting. Is that area of Colorado really remote enough to get completely lost? Closest I've come to CO is hunting the Sierra Madres on the Colorado border and you couldn't get lost down there if you were trying to.

Sent from my SM-G990U using Tapatalk

I'll just say that there are people who can get lost in a Buc-ees, nevermind the San Juan mountains. But this honestly doesn't sound like 'lost' to me. If it was one guy I'd believe lost. If it were one guy I'd believe his comms failed or he was injured. Two guys, for this many days, with their emergency comms going quiet, is scary.

I mean it's possible they shot an elk and fell into a ravine trying to recover it. Or fell face down and blocked the inreach signal. But when it's two people together it just seems like the list of possible explanations starts to skew towards foul play. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[taskswap]

Im completely ignorant to CO and have only spent time in Wyoming western hunting. Is that area of Colorado really remote enough to get completely lost? Closest I've come to CO is hunting the Sierra Madres on the Colorado border and you couldn't get lost down there if you were trying to.

All of Colorado is a mix of heavily traveled areas (like RMNP) and very remote spots, but with some exceptions, even in Wilderness Areas it's hard to get more than 5-7 miles from private property or a road in some direction. I carry a small emergency compass because "well I'd feel stupid not bringing it" but truthfully in the better part of a decade I haven't even taken it out of my bag. If you have even a rough mental model of the area you're going into, it's hard to be more than a 2 hour hike from "get me outta here".

That being said, this state is semi-notorious for lost and even vanished hikers, climbers, and so on. We're always seeing articles like https://morbidology.com/vanished-in-the-rockies-the-disappearance-of-alfred-beilhartz/ and https://5280.com/she-disappeared-on-a-colorado-mountain-a-dream-helped-rescuers-find-her/. It seems like 2-3 folks go missing every year and "the body was never found" not rare. If you just google "Colorado without a trace" you'll find dozens of articles like that. There was a really well written long-form article about one of these cases that spent a lot of time discussing how they do searches and why it's so easy for rescuers to never find someone even if they're in a more populated area, but I can't find it. Anyway, there are probably a dozen of these incidents every single year. It's hard to pick just one that's exceptional in some way.

A common thread is that there are often complications. Maybe the person was injured, under the influence, made bad decisions, had a gear failure, or got "ledged out." Maybe they are just stuck in between two rocks in such a way that makes them impossible to find. It's a vast state and it's sometimes hard to grasp just how vast. The GMU I'm hunting in right now isn't exactly light on population - I can see two ranches and four separate groups camping near the road from my site without standing up. But just to get around the road to another possible access point to where I want to be is a 90 minute drive. And that's all without even hitting a highway. Hiking across that same distance would take an overnight camp unless you were insanely hardy. And I'm just in one small corner of one unit of the 50 or so in question.

 

[TxxAgg]

Hoping for a positive outcome.

 

[Hnthrdr]

Missed some of this how many days have they been out of contact?

 

[Yooper]

Missed some of this how many days have they been out of contact?

Last check in was Thursday afternoon. Five days ago now.

 

[Steve300xcw]

Missed some of this how many days have they been out of contact?

Since thursday

 

[Hnthrdr]

Oh man… that’s not good.

 

[Pacific_Fork]

If something tragic happened and I was a betting man I’d say lighting got them. What else could take out two grown experienced men from communicating via iPhone sat or Garmin in a state with no grizz. Hope I’m wrong and they are on a beach eating backstrap and sipping mai tai’s

 

[HairyScandinavian]

If something tragic happened and I was a betting man I’d say lighting got them. What else could take out two grown experienced men from communicating via iPhone sat or Garmin in a state with no grizz. Hope I’m wrong and they are on a beach eating backstrap and sipping mai tai’s

If their last ping was at the truck, another human being.

 

[Pacific_Fork]

If their last ping was at the truck, another human being.

That ping doesn’t mean much to me until more information comes out. I’m just not aware of how anything gives live data to loved ones on a hour by hour basis. They could
Have hiked a mile away and been hit and everything fried by lightning rendering no location data, no?

 

[Chris in TN]

I’m just not aware of how anything gives live data to loved ones on a hour by hour basis. They could
Have hiked a mile away and been hit and everything fried by lightning rendering no location data, no?

I just bought an inreach and as I understand it I can engage a live tracking mode and it'll send a location ping to my wife or whoever else I invite to follow me, every ten minutes for 6+ days on a single battery charge. I haven't figured out all the details of how that works yet.

There's a picture of the two missing guys and one is wearing some sort of GPS device on his shoulder strap, but I don't know what device it is.

 

[mtnbound]

That ping doesn’t mean much to me until more information comes out. I’m just not aware of how anything gives live data to loved ones on a hour by hour basis. They could
Have hiked a mile away and been hit and everything fried by lightning rendering no location data, no?

They have a Garmin InReach that sends updates to their account and any shared maps they have sent invites out to. By default, they are sent every 10 minutes.