Family, Sheriff Hold Out Hope For Minnesota Man Missing A Week On Cloud Peak

If anyone could survive a week alone in the rugged Cloud Peak Wilderness of Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains, it’s Grant Gardner.

That’s what his family believes and it’s why his wife, Lauren Gardner, holds onto hope that her 38-year-old husband is still alive after his solo ascent of Cloud Peak on July 29.

He’s an experienced outdoorsman and is meticulous about being prepared and equipped when out in the wilderness, which is often, she told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday.

“He solo hikes, and he’s been hiking for over a decade,” she said from their home in Minnesota, where she’s with their two children, ages 13 and 11.

“He’s used to this stuff, and he’s very detail-oriented,” she said, adding that the past week of not knowing where her husband is or if he’s alive doesn’t feel real.

“It’s all definitely surreal,” she said. “And I’m in shock, I think, and trying to stay strong for the kids. This has never happened in all the years he’s gone out. He knows what he’s doing and has the skills. I’m just hoping right now.”

Still Hope

That’s the same hope dozens of volunteers, deputies and search and rescue personnel cling to as they desperately look for any sign of Gardner, Big Horn County Sheriff Ken Blackburn told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday.

That he’s an experienced hiker is one reason he said the effort “very much” remains a search and rescue operation, not search and recovery, which would assume he had perished.

“Given the length of time of the search is not of great concern,” the sheriff said. “We do a lot of computer modeling of these things … (which) indicates that, even with the weather, those models say he could be alive.

“We are in active search-and-rescue mode — not recovery.”

Blackburn also said that the response from people around Wyoming since learning of Gardner’s disappearance has been nearly overwhelming. 

People are volunteering to search and donating equipment.

“We’ve had a lot of offers of specialized equipment from as far away as Virginia,” he said. “It’s been a blessing. Some of the good people who have seen the post have offered (equipment and resources) free of charge.

“A lot of really, really good Samaritans out there.”

‘By The Phone Every Second’

How people have rallied since the search for Gardner began in earnest on Saturday hasn’t been lost on Lauren.

“I’m very grateful and thankful for all the help everyone out there has been to look for him and support our family,” she said.

She was the last person to have contact with Grant, who texted her July 29 from the top of Cloud Peak at about 7 p.m. Mountain Time. A previous report that he summited the peak at about 9 p.m. didn’t account for the time difference where Lauren was when she got the text.

In it, Grant described the ascent up the mountain as difficult and taxing, Lauren said.

“He said it was straight uphill on boulders,” she said, adding that she doesn’t know many details of the search, but is being kept in the loop.’

“I think they’re concerned he went off trail and got lost, so they’re looking in all possible areas,” she said. “I’m staying by my phone every second.”

While she doesn’t know exactly what Grant was wearing when he climbed Cloud Peak last week, there’s a good chance it’s a blue collared shirt like the one released with updates about the search.

“The blue shirt in the pictures is one of his common shirts he wears on his hikes,” Lauren said. “He also grows out his beard when he goes winter camping in the tundra in Minnesota in February, when he trims it. It’s probably grown out a little bit by now.”

Kindred Spirits

Brittany Berven said she feels a deep connection with Gardner, even if they’ve never met.

Berven also is from Minnesota and also was camping and hiking in the Cloud Peak Wilderness last week, perhaps coming within hours of seeing Gardner.

It’s just a coincidence that they’re both from Minnesota, she told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday. She was with a group that camped in the Mistymoon Lake area and believes they saw Gardner’s campsite.

Her group rolled in later Tuesday, then climbed up Cloud Peak on Wednesday, which would’ve been the next day after Gardner summited, she said. 

Near their campsite, they observed what appeared to be an empty tent that no one came back to, Berven said. It stuck in her mind because the weather turned rainy, then spat hail, but it didn’t appear as if anyone was in that other single-person tent.

“We don’t know for sure if it was his, but we would assume so,” she said. 

They also didn’t run into Gardner on the trail when they went up Cloud Peak, but they also didn’t know at the time he was missing and weren’t looking for him.

“The day we hiked in, it was moderate throughout the day,” she said about the weather. “Then we saw a storm rolling in at about 6 p.m.

“That would’ve been just about when he said he had made it (to the summit). It’s incredibly worrisome if it was wet” as Gardner attempted a descent, Berven said. “It’s pretty difficult. There’s a lot of boulder-hopping, so if that storm came through, imagine hopping down those rocks when it’s wet and it’s hailing.”

‘I Can’t Imagine’

While they were in the area, Berven said she and her companions saw a helicopter fly in and assumed it was rescuing someone. She also assumed it was whomever belonged to the abandoned tent.

“Up until yesterday, I thought (about) that helicopter that flew over us, ‘Thank God, they got to him,’” she said. “Then the next morning we stopped at a resort to get WiFi and there was nothing about it online.

“So, we decided in our minds that’s what happened, that he was rescued.”

Two days later she looked again for any information about the rescue, but still nothing. It wasn’t until she saw the post by Sheriff Blackburn on Monday that she realized the person she’d been so worried about is still missing.

And they’re both from Minnesota. 

She called the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office to relate what she knew and also share any photos and video that may help in their search efforts. She doesn’t see anything in them but hopes the professionals can.

Although she’s never met him, Berven becomes emotional thinking about Gardner being alone in the wilderness for a week.

“I feel like because we’re both from Minnesota, looking out for each other is the shit we do,” she said. “And I can’t imagine being alone and wet and it’s dark — I’d be pretty f***ing scared, I know that. I really, really hope he’s alive.”

So do Lauren and Blackburn, who also chokes up with emotion talking about how nobody’s giving up on finding Gardner.

“Yes, the odds go down every hour, but we still have plenty of reason to believe we are still in a search-and-rescue mode,” he said.

Contact Greg Johnson at greg@cowboystatedaily.com

Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.