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An experienced backpacker has been found dead two weeks after he was scheduled to return from a hike in Yosemite National Park.
Kirk Thomas Olsen, a 61-year-old former park ranger, had set off on his backpacking trip across the Ostrander Lake Area, near Glacier Point, on August 23, according to the National Park Service.
The 11.4-mile round-trip hike, which runs through pine forest to views of granite domes and Ostrander Lake, is known to be “strenuous” with a steep 1,500-foot (450 m) elevation gain, according to NPS.
Olsen had only intended to be hiking for four days.
But two weeks later, there was still no sign of the missing 61-year-old.
On Saturday, Olsen’s body was found.
National Park officials have not revealed his cause of death or where exactly his body was found.
Olsen’s niece Holly Leeson said on Facebook that “Mother Nature” may have played a part in the tragedy.
She had previously posted asking for help in finding her uncle.
“He is an experienced hiker and former park ranger himself, and as a family, we are struggling to understand what has happened to him out there and any information would be very helpful to us!...” she wrote.
In a follow-up post confirming his death, she wrote: “Thank you to everyone for the prayers and well wishes.
“His body was found which is not the outcome we as a family hoped for but I would like to say a genuine thank you to Yosemite National Park for their diligent efforts to find him, and to this community for the support.
“My late uncle was an experienced hiker and a former State Park ranger, unfortunately, Mother Nature in all of her glory does not account for past experience and solo hiking is never an endeavor that is without risks.”
She urged other hikers to always travel with a companion to stay safe.
As of this year, three individuals remain missing in Yosemite: Joel Thomazin (last seen 2021), Sandra Johnsen-Hughes (last seen 2020), and Peter Jackson (last seen 2016), according to NPS.
Previously, a 2017 Freedom of Information request revealed that a total of 33 unsolved missing persons cases had been recorded in the history of Yosemite – though it is unclear what that figure is today. The Independent has pursued up-to-date statistics via an FOI.
