CODY — Austin King, 22, hasn't been heard from since Sept. 17, when he called friends and family from the top of Eagle Peak, the highest point in Yellowstone National Park.
As the days continue to pass and King remains missing, his family isn't giving up. His dad, Brian King-Henke, is back in Wyoming organizing searches.
“Anything's possible. That's why I'm sitting here. My kid's strong,” King-Henke said on Sunday. “At this point it's like, we need to either, want to find him or get closure.”
King-Henke arrived in Cody, Wyoming on Wednesday and is now camping at the Eagle Creek campground with a growing team of search and rescuers volunteering their time.
“Just stay in there. Dad's coming for you,” King-Henke said. “The town of Cody itself is coming in my world. I asked for an army and I got an army. And it just keeps building.”
King left an entry while at the top of Eagle Peak, it starts with, "I can’t feel my fingers and my glasses are so fogged from the ruthless weather of the mountains. I truly cannot believe I’m here after what it took to be here."
“Then he made those phone calls soon after making that entry, or right afterwards," said John Lamb, a volunteer search and rescuer from Bozeman. "It was just, it was distress. He was, he was definitely lost.”
It was when King was heading back down the mountain that Lamb believes King went the wrong way trying to get back to his tent.
“I believe he got disorientated,” Lamb said.
Searching in new locations, the team leaves from the base camp in Eagle Cliff campground, crosses the river and hikes 14 miles into Yellowstone National Park to get the the base of Eagle Peak.
“We got some reports of some phone pings that we're following up on. There was another imaging where drones have flown over and we've taken that. And some people have done some AI stuff. Sent us some very important stuff that we were actually at this moment checking this stuff out,” Lamb said. “So, we're coming in that back way and then we're searching that whole back ridge area, anywhere that he might have went off of it, slipped off of it, hidden somewhere to get out of the weather.”
The team doesn't plan on stopping until snow, which is in the forecast for Thursday, forces them to leave.
A GoFundMe has been set up to help King-Henke cover costs while he is away from his job.
Yellowstone National Park also launched another aerial search for King over the weekend.
