The mother of missing hiker Austin King has spoken out about her ‘ecstatic’ son’s farewell call from the frigid summit of Yellowstone Mountain. No one has seen the 22-year-old since he called his mother, Pandora King, in Minnesota on September 17 after climbing the 11,400-foot Eagle Peak in one of America’s most remote locations.
He was supposed to return home to Winona in a few days after spending the summer working at the park, but pals said he had been talking about the mountain for ‘weeks’.
His mother has joined his father Brian Henke in a hotel at the foot of the mountain as an army of rescuers, scour the slopes for signs of life amid six-foot snowdrifts.
‘Every day they come back with you know, ‘We’re still looking. We’re not giving up. We’re still searching’,’ the 52-year-old said.
‘This was the pinnacle of his summer because he had to go home in two weeks. So, this was it. This was the grand adventure.’
Austin had driven to the park in his 2006 Chevy Silverado and was planning a seven-day trip when he set out to conquer the mountain on September 14.
A boat dropped the fit young hiker at Terrace Point on a southern spur of Lake Yellowstone just under 10 miles from the mountain peak.
Two days later he was spotted by a backcountry ranger who spoke to him on the banks of Howell Creek as he skirted the foothills on his way to a cabin on the east of the mountain.
‘He was headed to site 6D8 for the night and planned to climb Eagle Peak on Tuesday, September 17,’ the National Park Service said in an alert.
But it was 7.30pm and darkness was falling before he finally reached the summit and took out his phone to break the news.
Among those he phoned was his oldest friend Desmond McGroarty, 22, who had also got a job in Yellowstone after following him from their home town.
‘He did say his hands were cold and stuff, but it sounded like he just didn’t care, because he was so excited he made it to the top.’
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