Rescue crews searching for Utah man who vanished while hiking 3 weeks ago
Utah police are searching for a man who went missing while hiking on Mount Timpanogos three weeks ago.
Jacob Warner Routt, 36, texted a friend on Sept. 16 telling her that he was going out hiking and would call her back, but the friend never heard from him again. As Routt is adventurous, his friends and family were not worried about him until after a few days of not hearing from him, according to Utah County Sheriff Sgt. Spencer Cannon.
“After a few days beyond that when they hadn't heard from him then they thought something was unusual and she checked the family and nobody had heard from him,” Cannon told ABC News.
Police tried to track his phone, but only found the old one near the Aspen Grove trail, according to authorities. Routt's car was found by police at the Aspen Grove Trailhead parking lot, police said, and they also found some pieces of his belongings near Aspen Grove.
“His car was in the parking lot of the trailhead and the searchers went up the area in a mountain near the parking lot,” Cannon said. “And they found a backpack that belonged to him, a pair of shoes or sandals, and a few other items that belonged to him. We just have not managed to find him.”
Dozens of police, rescue teams, volunteers, friends, and his family with K-9 units have been out in the area looking for Routt. Helicopters and drones have also been used to search for him.
The area was small but the cliffs and steeps, peaks, and thick wood have made the search difficult, Cannon said.
“You're limited pretty much to searching during daylight hours, and we've had some low lying clouds and some rain and even a little bit of snow in some areas have made it difficult to continue searching,” Cannon said.
He went on saying that the snow which has been projected to come soon will make the search more difficult.
Some parts of the area on the ground could not be accessed without using technical climbing equipment to be able to do the search safely.
“If he was up there and fell somehow," Cannon said. "It's entirely possible that he could have fallen to an area that the only way you'd be able to get to is by climbing down to it. So we're still in the process of covering some of those areas, as well, and it's very time consuming, difficult and [an] even dangerous process in some areas.”
