Searchers in Wyoming find body of Minnesota mountain climber a month after he went missing

Searchers in Wyoming have recovered the body of a mountain climber who’s been missing for nearly a month, officials said Thursday.

The body of Grant Gardner, 38, of Lakeville, was found Wednesday by a professional climbing team from North Carolina, said Big Horn County Sheriff Ken Blackburn.

“A difficult and dangerous recovery was conducted, and Grant Gardner is being brought home to his family,” Blackburn said. “While it’s not the outcome we hoped for, we are hopeful this will provide much-needed peace and closure to the family.”

Gardner had plans for a three-day solo trek in the Cloud Peak Wilderness area and informed his wife on July 29 he had reached the 13,000-foot summit, according to the Sheriff’s Office. When he failed to wrap up his hike on Aug. 1 as planned, a search and rescue mission was launched by the Sheriff’s Office in the expansive and rugged terrain, the Sheriff’s Office said.

After three weeks, the search was called off because “our teams have exhausted all resources and personnel over the last 20 days, [and] the most optimistic survival odds have run out,” the sheriff said at the time.

The sheriff outlined the circumstances leading up to Gardner’s body being found:

During the late afternoon to early evening on Tuesday, the North Carolina team reached the top of Cloud Peak and started back down on the northern slope. While setting up camp for the evening, the climbers spotted what looked like a backpack. They sat tight as darkness set in and waited until Thursday morning to investigate further.

The County Coroner’s Office will determine what led to Gardner’s death and an approximate time when he died.

Nearly a year after the initial search-and-rescue effort, a private search group looked for Austin King in the mountains of Yellowstone National Park, southwest of Cody, Wyo. The search, involving dog teams, was one of two this month.

King, 22, a Winona native, went missing in September after summiting Yellowstone’s highest peak in violent weather. At the time, he was a concessions employee in the park.

His father, Brian King-Henke, said some members of a second private search that began Aug. 21 had to be evacuated out of the wild because of bad weather. He added that drones were heavily used over the last several days. The footage is getting analyzed.

As of early this week, Austin King’s whereabouts remain a mystery.