Austin King Disappearance

The Register at the Top:

Austin King, Eagle Peak, and the Search That Winter Interrupted

A Mountain at the Edge of the Road Map

Eagle Peak stands in the Absaroka Range on the southeastern margin of Yellowstone National Park, in Wyoming. It sits east of Yellowstone Lake in a roadless country of ridges, dense timber, and steep ground (Klingsporn). The National Park Service gives its elevation as 11,372 feet and names it the park's highest point (National Park Service, 22 Sept. 2024). One regional account gives 11,361 feet (McFarland). This article uses the park's figure.

The peak was a known landmark long before it became the subject of a search. The U.S. Geological Survey's 1899 monograph on the geology of the park, written by Arnold Hague and six collaborators, includes a photograph of Eagle Peak taken about 1890 (Hague et al.; "Eagle Peak"). What has changed little since then is the distance between the mountain and everything else. Michael Yochim, who worked as a National Park Service planner at Yellowstone, calls the nearby Thorofare region the remotest place in the country outside Alaska. He notes that its name recalls a route fur trappers used (Yochim). The Jackson Hole News&Guide likewise described southeastern Yellowstone as one of the most remote areas in the Lower 48 (Arnold).

Austin King was a 22-year-old from Winona, Minnesota. He spent the summer of 2024 working for Xanterra Parks and Resorts, the private concessioner that runs hotels and restaurants in the park (National Park Service, 2 Oct. 2024; Arnold). Through August he posted photographs of his time there (Arnold).

The Climb

King left by boat on September 14 for a planned seven-day solo trip to climb Eagle Peak (Klingsporn; National Park Service, 22 Sept. 2024). On Tuesday, September 17, a storm crossed the park, bringing rain and fog and, at higher elevations, snow (Klingsporn). King reached the summit that evening. A register kept in a weatherproof box there holds his last known writing (Cooper). He wrote that he could not feel his fingers, according to a Montana television report (Monaco). He also wrote that fog had clouded his glasses and that he would never forget the day (Cooper).

He then telephoned family and friends and described fog, rain, sleet, hail, and wind (National Park Service, 22 Sept. 2024). According to his father, Brian King-Henke, he missed the call and did not retrieve the voicemail for about a week. He later learned that his son had reached his mother and had sounded unwell (Timmons, "What Happened"). Those calls are the last known contact.

The Search

King was due at a boat pickup on the Southeast Arm of Yellowstone Lake on the afternoon of Friday, September 20. When he did not appear, he was reported overdue to the park's interagency communications center, and the search began at first light the next morning. That evening rescuers found his camp and personal effects in the upper Howell Creek area (National Park Service, 22 Sept. 2024). The park asked anyone who had been in the backcountry near the peak since September 14 to come forward.

The effort grew quickly. More than twenty ground searchers were working on September 22. By September 24 there were 85 personnel, and by September 27 there were 96 (National Park Service, 24 and 27 Sept. 2024). They were joined by two helicopters, one belonging to Yellowstone and one to Teton County, Wyoming, along with a dog team, spotting-scope teams, and a drone (National Park Service, 27 Sept. 2024; Arnold). Grand Teton National Park and Park County, Wyoming, also sent crews. Searchers reported snow, ice, and drifts of six feet on the peak (National Park Service, 24 Sept. 2024). Photographs taken September 21 show the summit already white (Arnold). Park staff also followed up on cellular activity from the evening of September 17, consulting forensic experts (National Park Service, 27 Sept. 2024).

On October 2, after eleven days, the park shifted from rescue to recovery. More than 100 people had covered over 3,225 miles by air and ground, at elevations from 11,350 down to 8,400 feet, without finding a definitive clue. Superintendent Cam Sholly said, "we have not been able to locate Austin." Limited searching would continue as conditions allowed, and the park said it would offer no further updates unless something notable changed (National Park Service, 2 Oct. 2024).

Several questions remain open. King's camp lay southeast of the peak, and why he left it is unknown. Greg Jackson, a retired Park Service ranger, noted that few people leave survival supplies behind by choice (Arnold). John Lamb, a volunteer searcher, told the Star Tribune that a tent, sleeping pad, and food bag were found at the camp but that a backpack and sleeping bag were not. He suggested King may have fallen or succumbed to cold (Timmons, "What Happened"). That is one searcher's interpretation, not a park finding.

The Mountain in Winter

King's father would not wait. By mid-October he had set up a base at the Eagle Creek trailhead in Shoshone National Forest, outside the park, with a team of up to eleven volunteers, some from Montana (Timmons, "What Happened"; Monaco). Roger Roots of Livingston, Montana, climbed Eagle Peak alone between October 11 and 13 and found no sign of King. He described rings of cliffs around the mountain (Timmons, "What Happened"). Lamb believed King had become disoriented descending toward his tent, though he offered this as his own view (Monaco).

Weather and the park's caution limited this second search. King-Henke and others said park officials barred a helicopter drop planned for the Table Mountain area on October 14. A park spokesperson said the Park Service was warning the volunteers about terrain and approaching weather and weighing the risks to lives (Timmons, "What Happened"). Heavy snow arrived on Wednesday, October 16. As much as a foot is believed to have fallen on the peak and surrounding ridges (Timmons, "What Happened"). By October 22 the independent search was paused for the season, and King-Henke drove back to Minnesota, promising to return when the snow was gone (Cooper). King-Henke himself acknowledged that his son, though strong and resourceful, lacked the experience the climb demanded (Cooper). In 2025 he said the young man had trained for it (Timmons, "Winona Native").

A Second Season of Searching

In July 2025, Cowboy State Daily reported that two efforts were being planned: a private team led by search coordinator Bill Dohse and a Park Service team. Superintendent Sholly said he had personally led a team down the mountain's south drainage in 2024 and had flown over its north face in October (McFarland). That detail rests on his account alone. Dohse said a coworker of King's had pointed to an alternate route King considered "in case he had to bail out," by way of the Eagle Creek trailhead (McFarland). This too rests on a single source.

The Jon Francis Foundation, a Minnesota nonprofit that supports families of people missing in the wild, organized the first private search, which began August 12, 2025. The park, which normally prohibits drones and search dogs in the backcountry, permitted both and shared its maps and drone data (Timmons, "Winona Native"). Over five days, four cadaver-dog teams and climbing experts covered the east side of the peak. The foundation's director said the team concluded King was not there, though dogs showed interest on the west side. A park spokesperson said the search produced no new information or clues (Walsh and Timmons). A second private group of about twenty people was to begin August 21, focusing on a two-mile radius of the summit (Timmons, "Winona Native"). I found no published account of its results.

What the Record Supports

The documented facts are few and consistent across sources. King reached the summit on September 17, 2024, in poor weather. He wrote in the register, telephoned family, and was never seen again. His camp was found within a day of the search's start. Eleven days of intensive searching, followed by private searches in autumn 2024 and August 2025, found no trace of him. Snow stopped each of the early efforts.

The cause and location of King's disappearance have not been established. The theories above come from volunteers and private searchers, not from the park, and they remain unproven. The reporting I reviewed through October 2026 does not say that King has been found. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Yellowstone Interagency Communications Center at 307-344-2643 (National Park Service, 22 Sept. 2024).

Works Cited

Arnold, Billy. "Yellowstone Hiker Still Missing." Jackson Hole News&Guide, 28 Sept. 2024, https://www.jhnewsandguide.com/news/cops_courts/local/yellowstone-hiker-still-missing/article_e2e6fd1a-7cec-11ef-ba34-1f1b3e5e7051.html. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

Cooper, Renée. "Winter Weather Pauses Father's Independent Search Effort for Missing 22-Year-Old Hiker from Winona." KSTP, 22 Oct. 2024, https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/winter-weather-pauses-fathers-independent-search-effort-for-missing-22-year-old-hiker-from-winona/. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

"Eagle Peak. Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Circa 1890." ScienceBase, U.S. Geological Survey, https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/51dc9516e4b097e4d383a441. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

Hague, Arnold, et al. Geology of the Yellowstone National Park: Part II. Descriptive Geology, Petrography, and Paleontology. U.S. Geological Survey, 1899. Monograph 32, https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/m32. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

Klingsporn, Katie. "Yellowstone Downshifts Search for Missing Hiker from 'Rescue' to 'Recovery.'" WyoFile, 2 Oct. 2024, https://wyofile.com/yellowstone-downshifts-search-for-missing-hiker-from-rescue-to-recovery/. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

McFarland, Clair. "Massive Recovery Mission Planned for Yellowstone Hiker Who Vanished 10 Months Ago." Cowboy State Daily, 18 July 2025, https://cowboystatedaily.com/2025/07/18/massive-recovery-mission-planned-for-yellowstone-hiker-who-vanished-10-months-ago/. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

Monaco, Hailey. "'Dad's Coming for You': Family Continues to Search for Missing Hiker in Yellowstone National Park." KTVQ, 13 Oct. 2024, https://www.ktvq.com/news/local-news/dads-coming-for-you-family-continues-to-search-for-missing-hiker-in-yellowstone-national-park. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

National Park Service. "Search on Eagle Peak in Yellowstone National Park Moves from Rescue to Recovery, Scales Back." Yellowstone National Park, U.S. Department of the Interior, news releases dated 22 Sept., 24 Sept., 27 Sept., and 2 Oct. 2024, https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/news/240922.htm. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

Timmons, Bob. "What Happened to Minnesota Native Missing in Yellowstone? His Dad Is Determined to Find Out." Minnesota Star Tribune, 19 Oct. 2024, https://www.startribune.com/what-happened-to-yellowstone-backpacker-austin-king-his-dad-is-committed-to-finding-out/601164491. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

Timmons, Bob. "Winona Native Disappeared in Yellowstone a Year Ago. 'Army' of Searchers Won't Give Up." Minnesota Star Tribune, 9 Aug. 2025, https://www.startribune.com/austin-king-disappeared-in-yellowstone-almost-a-year-ago-his-family-is-determined-to-find-him/601430621. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

Walsh, Paul, and Bob Timmons. "Searches End in Wyoming Mountains with Minnesotans Still Missing in Separate Cases." Minnesota Star Tribune, 21 Aug. 2025, https://www.startribune.com/search-ends-in-wyoming-mountains-without-climber-from-minnesota-being-found/601458498. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

Yochim, Michael J. A Week in Yellowstone's Thorofare: A Journey through the Remotest Place. Oregon State UP, 2016. Project MUSE, https://muse.jhu.edu/book/57116. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.