Missing hiker's body found on Wyoming's Cloud Peak a month after final text
Grant Gardner, 38, was discovered Aug. 26 beneath a ledge near the 13,000-foot summit after sending a last message to his wife on July 29.
Grant Gardner, a 38-year-old hiker from Minnesota, was found deceased on Aug. 26 in Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains nearly a month after he sent a final text to his wife and was not heard from again, the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office said.
Gardner’s body was located under a ledge near the summit of Cloud Peak, a roughly 13,000-foot summit in the Cloud Peak Wilderness, by a professional climbing team from North Carolina, the sheriff’s office said in a statement. Gardner had been reported missing on July 29 after he planned a three-day hike through the Misty Moon Lake area and later planned to summit Cloud Peak.
Phone records showed Gardner’s last known contact was a message to his wife on July 29 in which he said he had made it to the summit, according to authorities. The sheriff’s office said the discovery, while not the outcome hoped for, may provide "much needed peace and closure to the family."
Officials did not immediately release a cause of death. The sheriff’s office statement did not provide additional details about the circumstances that led to Gardner’s death, and it said investigators would release more information as it becomes available.
Cloud Peak and the surrounding terrain in the Bighorn Mountains are known for steep, remote ridgelines and high-elevation conditions that can complicate travel and rescue operations. Search efforts for missing hikers in the area often involve local and out-of-area search-and-rescue teams, including specialized climbing parties when terrain requires technical expertise.
The case drew attention after Gardner’s disappearance late last month, with local authorities and volunteers working to locate him. The Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office coordinated with rescue teams during the search and confirmed the recovery after the climbing team’s find on Aug. 26.
Authorities asked that any additional information from hikers or witnesses who were in the Cloud Peak Wilderness around July 29 be reported to the sheriff’s office to assist ongoing inquiries. Further details, including any autopsy findings or an official cause of death, were pending release by investigators.