Search intensifies for missing Minnesotan amid snow drifts, ice in Yellowstone

At times dealing with ice and 6-foot snow drifts, more searchers continued Wednesday to look for a Winona native who disappeared last week during a hike to a rugged and remote section of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

Austin King, 22, was last heard from Sept. 17 during a backcountry trip to Eagle Peak, the highest point in the national park. King was on a seven-day outing when he called friends and family from the peak’s summit Sept. 17 and reported weather including fog, hail and high winds, according to the National Park Service (NPS).

King, a park concession employee, didn’t arrive for a planned boat pickup near Yellowstone Lake’s southeast arm Sept. 20.

Rescuers from Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and Teton and Park counties have been searching on the ground and from the air since Saturday in the mountainous areas around Eagle Peak, in the park’s southeast corner and west of Cody, Wyo. They found King’s camp and personal effects that night.

In an update Tuesday night, the NPS detailed in a release that more resources have gone into the search, with 85 personnel, two helicopters, a K9 team and “uncrewed aircraft” searching for King.

“Teams will continue to search for the next several days as conditions continue to improve due to favorable weather forecasts,” the service added.

Authorities are seeking the public’s help and are asked to called the Yellowstone Interagency Communications Center at 307-344-2643 with any information about King’s whereabouts.

King lists himself as a West Yellowstone, Mont., resident in his Facebook page profile, and a former student at Cotter High School in Winona.