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The father of a missing Yellowstone National Park worker has revealed the eerie contents of a shaky handwritten note from his son the last time he heard from him before he disappeared while hiking in inclement weather.
“Due to the rough mountain weather, I lost feeling in my fingers and my glasses fogged up,” Austin King, 22, wrote on the summit of Wyoming's 11,361-foot Eagle Peak on September 17. .
“After all the hard work it took to get here, I can't believe I'm here now,” King wrote in his memo. A copy his father shared with Cowboy State Daily.
“I endured rain, sleet, hail, and the most wind I have ever felt.”
King also revealed that he couldn't see Eagle Peak “for most of the day because of the most fog I've ever seen in my life.”
He also wrote that he climbed free solo, that is, without the aid of ropes or other equipment, but that there were “too many cliffs” and that reaching the summit from connecting peaks was “also known as “It wasn't the right path.”
Brian Kinghenke said Friday he was setting up a local base camp and organizing a rescue team to search for his missing son, and began paying for the rescue effort, according to his GoFundMe page. That's what he said.
More than 40 donations poured in Saturday, exceeding the campaign's goal of $10,000.
Austin King began a seven-day solo backcountry trip to the top of Yellowstone's highest peak, Eagle Peak, on September 14th.
He told his family about the troubling weather conditions on September 17th.
When the Minnesota native, who worked as a concession employee at the park, failed to show up for a scheduled boat pick-up on Sept. 20, crews began a frantic search.
The next day, searchers reported finding his camp and personal belongings in the Howell Creek area.
“I'll never forget today.'' [for] For the rest of my life,” King eerily concludes the registry.
“Life is beautiful, go out and live it.”
On October 2, authorities transitioned from rescue efforts to rescuing King. According to the National Park Service.
