Body of missing hiker found in Wyoming's Bighorn National Forest after monthlong search: Sheriff

After being missing for nearly a month, a man who had left for a three-day hike in Wyoming was found dead in Bighorn National Forest, authorities said.

"While it's not the outcome we hoped for, we are hopeful this will provide much needed peace and closure to the family," the Big Horn County Sheriff's Office said in a statement on Thursday.

Grant Gardner, a Minnesota man who had planned on a three-day hike "through the Misty Moon Lake area, eventually summiting Cloud Peak," which is the highest peak within Bighorn National Forest, was last heard from on July 29, when he contacted his wife, saying he had made it to the summit, the sheriff's office said.

Phone records revealed that he had reached the summit at Cloud Peak -- which is around 13,000 feet -- at approximately 7 p.m., which was concerning to officials due to the "lack of visible trails through cliffs, timer line, boulder fields and other hazards that had to be navigated after dark before reaching clear trails and safe terrain," officials said.

Since then, officials said "there has not been any contact with Gardner."

On Tuesday, a professional climbing team from North Carolina "summited Cloud Peak and descended to the northern route of the peak," the sheriff's office said. When the team was establishing a high-altitude camp for the evening, they "noticed a slight reflection a few hundred feet above them underneath a ledge," and were "confident it was a backpack," the sheriff's office said.

But due to nightfall approaching, further investigation would be "too dangerous," so the team notified the sheriff's office via satellite, officials said.

Then on Wednesday, teams from the sheriff's office were launched and "Grant Gardner's remains were located near the backpack" and he was wearing "clothing that very closely matched the terrain he was climbing in," officials said.

The body was recovered in one of the two primary search areas, "very closely matching one of the highest probability scenarios," officials said.

"It is noteworthy that this area had been covered by air and other means, underscoring how difficult this mission has been," the sheriff's office said.

Bighorn National Forest is over 1 million acres, with 191,000 acres dedicated to the Cloud Peak Wilderness area, which is where Gardner is believed to have been traveling, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

While the case has been transferred to the Big Horn County Coroner's Office to determine the time, manner and cause of death, officials said they believe Gardner "succumbed to a tragic accident as we all have surmised."

Prior to the discovery of Gardner's body, officials had suspended search efforts for the hiker, saying that his "most optimistic survival odds have run out."

"I have made the heartbreaking and difficult decision to suspend active search and rescue operations for Mr. Gardner. Our teams have exhausted all resources and personnel over the last 20 days. With weather conditions and other factors updated in our search models, we have to face the reality that the most optimistic survival odds have run out," Big Horn County Sheriff Ken Blackburn said in a statement last week.

Now, after this "dangerous" recovery, Gardner's body will be "brought home to his family," officials said.