Search ongoing for 22-year old missing hiker
NEWCOMB — A massive search for a missing 22-year-old hiker in the southern High Peaks Wilderness is underway.
Leo Dufour of Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec set out to hike Allen Mountain, a High Peak with an elevation of 4,340 feet, and has not been seen since Friday. Search and rescue personnel have not found signs of the missing hiker as of noon Wednesday, according to a statement from the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
Dufour, 22, is an avid hiker, according to Facebook posts from friends and family members, and had winter hiking gear — including snowshoes and microspikes — as well as a stove. He was expected to return Saturday night, according to the DEC.
The DEC’s Ray Brook Dispatch — which coordinates wilderness search operations for the entire state — received a call at 2:30 a.m. Sunday from State Police, reporting the overdue hiker. State Police said in a Facebook Post that they received the initial call around 11 p.m. Saturday. His vehicle was located at the Mount Adams Trailhead on the Upper Works Road in the town of Newcomb.
Dozens of forest rangers are leading the ground search effort, according to the DEC. The State Police Aviation Unit is assisting by providing forward-looking infrared cameras on their aircraft in an effort to detect any thermal signatures over the densely wooded and hard-to-access terrain.
The DEC and State Police searched the east side of Allen Mountain and the Marcy swamp area beneath Allen’s eastern slopes throughout Tuesday, according to the press release. The unofficial trail to Allen Mounatin’s summit comes from the west, indicating the possibility that Dufour may have lost or gone off of the trail. It was not clear at noon Wednesday if the search area had shifted since Tuesday.
Forest rangers set up two backcountry operation outposts to facilitate the operation, and are continuing the search today, according to the press release. It was unclear at press time if incoming weather — with more accumulating snow and gusty winds forecast for the area Wednesday afternoon and much of Thursday, according to the National Weather Service’s Burlington, Vermont office, which serves the High Peaks area — would impact search efforts.
Despite the trailhead’s name, Allen Mountain is most commonly accessed from the Mount Adams trailhead. The two peaks share trail for a portion of their respective climbs before diverging approximately 1 mile from the parking lot. From there, portions of the trail to Allen are unmarked and unofficial, including the final portion of the hike that gains most of the elevation near the summit.
Allen Mountain is considered an extremely isolated peak. The trail to its summit is approximately 9 miles one-way from the Mount Adams parking lot, with several bridgeless streams to cross.
In addition to the long distances, search and rescue personnel encountered inclement weather, as persistent lake-effect snows impacted that region throughout the weekend. The DEC said it was able to identify one set of tracks from the vehicle, but the snowfall made them difficult to track. Recent unofficial trail reports from hikers in the southern portions of the High Peaks have reported between 2 and 3 feet of snow near the summits as of Tuesday.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.