Hiker vanishes after sharing photo from atop Colorado mountain, family says

Helena Wegner
·2 min read
1

A 28-year-old hiker shared a photo from the peak of a Colorado mountain before disappearing, authorities and his family said.

Ian O’Brien of Page, Arizona, had been camping with his girlfriend in the Echo Basin area Saturday, June 24, when he set out to hike Hesperus Mountain near Durango, The Durango Herald reported from local authorities.

“He’s an extensive, experienced outdoor hiker and knows the area extremely well,” Ian O’Brien’s sister, Kelsey O’Brien Rodriguez, told The Arizona Republic. “He went out on a hike by himself at a reasonable time, to a hike he’d done before.”

But O’Brien never returned to the campsite.

Authorities said they knew he reached the peak because he shared a photo atop the mountain at about 6:30 p.m., The Durango Herald reported.

Rescuers began looking for him at about 11:30 that night, The Arizona Republic reported.

A group of hikers reported seeing O’Brien walk into the woods “disoriented” a day after he was reported missing, his sister, Molly O’Brien, said in a Facebook post.

Molly O’Brien said her brother has epilepsy, so he’s been in the woods without his medication. She said their family is worried he may be having seizures and didn’t ask for help when he saw other hikers.

“Healthy Ian could survive in the woods alone for a long time, but at this point he is not himself, and he is in a lot of danger,” she said in the Facebook post.

Montezuma County Search and Rescue has been searching for Ian O’Brien for four days, but search efforts will end June 28 because the volunteer organization has hit its capacity, Molly O’Brien said in another post.

The family is now looking for more volunteers to continue the search, including skilled hikers and backpackers.

Durango is in southwestern Colorado.

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