Search continues for missing hikers in Denali Park
Published Tuesday, June 17, 2008
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Stumble It!FAIRBANKS — Park officials widened their effort Monday to find two hikers missing in Denali National Park and Preserve.
Search teams are focusing on roughly 100 square miles of land surrounding the Savage River. By Monday afternoon, the search had grown to include 60 people and a pair of dog teams from Fairbanks.
The missing backpackers are 23-year-old Erica Nelson and 25-year-old Abby Flantz. Flantz is from Craylord, Minn., and Nelson is from Las Vegas, the National Park Service said.
Park service spokeswoman Kris Fister said the two hikers, who work at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge, are experienced trail hikers but lack experience in the uneven, raw terrain of Alaska’s backcountry. Fister said this summer’s visit was the first trip to Alaska for each woman. Their outdoors experience in the state was slim, Fister said, adding that many areas of Denali Park include more challenging terrain than average hikers might be used to.
“It takes a different set of skills,” she said.
Fister said the women were last seen just north of a maintained, two-mile loop that runs along both sides of, and at one point crosses by footbridge, the Savage River. She said they were seen on a somewhat rougher trail on the west side of the river but had obtained a wilderness permit for land on the river’s east side.
“They were basically on a cross-country but heavily-traveled route,” she said. “They have not been seen beyond that spot.”
Nelson and Flantz were due back Friday from what they’d indicated was to be a one-night backpacking trip. They were last seen Thursday.
The search has focused on land north and west of the Savage River and covers possible routes the hikers may have taken if they chose not to cross the river due to high water conditions.
Weather in the park has been typical for the season, according to the park service. Fister said Monday’s drizzle and clouds did little to hamper search efforts, which also included a pair of helicopters and a plane.
Fister said the river is only about 15 yards wide near the spot where the women were last seen.
The park service learned the women were missing after they failed to show up for work Saturday at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge. Princess spokesman Bruce Bustamonte said the company is providing meals for the search teams and is otherwise following the park service’s lead.
“We’re all working toward the same goal, and that’s the safe return of the women in the park,” he said.
Search managers would like to talk to anyone who was hiking in the Savage River drainage area between Thursday and Sunday. Anyone who may have information is asked to call the parks service at 683-9648.
Contact staff writer Christopher Eshleman at 459-7582.
Community Discussion
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The terrain gets very steep, and brushy, as one hikes that trail along the river. A bear encounter or a fall are the first two possibilites that come to mind. I'd get a helicopter in there with equipment that could detect heat ASAP.
Has the US Park Service asked the Army for help? They've got some great resources...
this is why i always have 2 guns with me whenever i go into the woods. 30-06 and 44 mag. i hope they find them alive and ok.
my guess is they tried to cross the savage... one got into trouble and the other came to their rescue...in turn both were swept away...I hope Im wrong...inexperience and lack of good judgement will get you killed...
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports Ms. Flantz as being from Gaylord MN.
This story is linked on CNN now. Very scary.
Yes,
I've found that when backcountry hiking, carrying 50lbs of firearms and ammo helps me stay in great shape. The tussocks and uneven terrain aren't enough of a workout. Plus, the are very handy when swept off your feet in a glacial stream.
stan-
It would be Gaylord, MN.
As with all National Parks, the posession of firearms in Denali National Park has always been prohibited. Does not matter if it is the Cape Cod National Seashore Park in Mass or one in Alaska - no firearms of any type are allowed - these parks are all governed by one set of rules and regulations.
Ironic that just yesterday CNN interviewed a photographer and a former park official on the subject of pending regulations change to allow firearms in these parks based on the state laws the park resides in. The photog said there are plenty of guns everywhere and they should not be in the park. The official predicted it would lead to lawless chaos.
Right now these missing women in bear county is CNN's lead story. Yesterday's Park story is now missing.
In 1999 with my son's 6th grade class of 80 students and 7 teaches a bubbly young Denali Park female ranger stated no bear attacks on any person has ever been recorded in any US National Park in history. I laughed out loud, and asked why the two men who recently died from separate bear maulings in the Kodiak National Wildlife Preserve and Park didn't count - and she just stared and ignored me.
In 2003 I heard the same BS speech while in Denali Park told to my other son's 5th grade class.
They don't want firearms in the park - fine - I don't go there. However, Rangers shouldn't be lying to people about their survival chances..... Especially to non-Alaskans who do not know better and believe their BS.
My favorite was the ranger telling us that all the bears in Denali were vegetarians that ate all plant life. That is why they are smaller than the coastal bears. I will admit, it is mainly a vegetarian diet, but he had a hard time explaining why the bear we saw later was digging a ground squirrel out of his hole.
In truth, you really can't compare Kodiak to Denali. The bear concentrations are much higher and your chances of having a "run in" much higher in Kodiak. They are also much larger. Not that it matters when you are being slapped around by a small grizzly mom.
I have hiked dozens of times in Denali, and thousands of hours in the Alaska Range and never bothered with the extra weight of a firearm. Your chance of having a "run in" in the area are low. Make plenty of noise and don't wander into shrubs and thickets without yelling like hell. Make noise all the time. I sing and the yelling of my hiking partners and wife to "Shut the hell up," has usually scared things away. They do make all back-country hikers learn this before they get a permit. I don't think they BS them that much.
However, in coastal areas and around salmon streams I always carried a sidearm if possible. I also carried one if a boat, canoe, raft, 4-wheeler, etc.. carried the weight. To me, the risk justified the extra weight. To me it is a travesty that you can't carry a fire-arm in those areas if you want to.
Of course, protection from other hikers and idiots is another matter....
I am a law abiding citizen who also happens to have a conceiled carry permit although no longer needed in Alaska. If the parks want to restrict the carrying of handguns to those who have permits that is one thing but to restrict them to everyone is absurd. The reality is in Alaska personal protection usually isnt from two legged creatures but four.
i work in the park, and people are devastated. reading all the comments shows peoples stupidity. you cant take guns into Denali Park. and kingfisher907, your guess is just that a guess. stupid.
jdub: No one said they take guns into Denali, stupid. Maybe you should read people's comments a little more carefully before calling people stupid.
I think they out to charge people for their rescue if they where unprepaired to be doing this in the first place.
Wow - 12 posts. It usually takes just a few posts before we start charging people who are in obvious peril for their rescue.
It is one thing if they were attacked by bears or got injured by slipping or something, that they should not be charged for. But if they put themselves in this position by lack of preparation or taking on more than they could handle, they should be charged for the rescue.
I understand the reasoning behind such an opinion, I just wonder how one would define and then implement such a "guideline". And right now, while they are missing and the minutes tick by, does it matter?
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