Prospects for missing Glacier hiker grow dim

By CHRIS PETERSON / Hungry Horse News

"Whether or not one is religious, I'm sure most of us would agree with me that there is something holy and sacred in creation, something that can perhaps only be fully experienced with eyes and ears open, and perhaps best on foot. During the last few years, I have moved further on this path…"

The above passage was a post penned by Yi Jien Hwa, a 27-year-old hiker from Kentucky and Malaysia on April 18, 2008 for the Yahoo Group, "backpackgeartesters," an Internet message board. In the post, Hwa is making a pitch to get a free pair of Scarpa boots so he can field test them.

Those boots would go on his size 11 shoe and his size 11 feet would hit the trail in Glacier National Park on Aug. 11 for a classic traverse of Glacier, an on and off trail excursion that would take him some 96.6 miles across the Park to its northern most reaches in the North Fork of the Flathead.

The Park recommended he not do the trip. Partly because sections of it were off-trail. Partly because it had severe elevation gain and loss. And partly, and perhaps most importantly, he was going to do it alone.

His plan, at least according to his backcountry permit, was to camp at Sperry Campground, do the Floral Park Traverse — a rugged off trail hike near Sperry Glacier, camp at Reynolds Creek Aug. 12, then Granite Park Aug. 13, then Fifty Mountain Aug. 14, then Kootenai Lakes Aug. 15, the Hole-in-the-Wall Aug. 16 and then Upper Kintla Aug. 17. He'd hike out of the Park on Aug. 18, finishing up a long trip.

But on Aug. 18 Hwa apparently never left the Park at Kintla Lake. He made no contact with his family. Hikers hadn't seen him. No one ran into him. The only clue was his car, parked at the Logan Pass parking lot. Every day, for eight days.

As Hwa puts it in his message board post, "…The terrain will be rocky, difficult, and will involve some scrambling up the Continental Divide on our off trail route."

The "our" suggests Hwa originally intended to go with a someone else, presumably his wife. The Park declined to release her name, but did confirm she was supposed to go, but left the country shortly before the trip on a family emergency. She was supposed to join him later in Salt Lake City, Utah.

On Aug. 19 Yi Jien Hwa was officially considered a missing person and the Park started an investigation. A full scale search began Aug. 20. Concern grew and more and more searchers came on board. Over the weekend as many as 60 people looked for him. Last week they spent 2,500 man hours looking for him. They used search dogs, helicopters, poked in crevasses, scoured alpine areas near Sperry Glacier. The FBI and Flathead County and Glacier County Sheriff's Department helped. Flathead County Search and Rescue sent out teams and the U.S. Border Patrol also investigated and lent a helicopter as did Minuteman Aviation.

The search came back zero.

Hwa's family has since arrived in the Park. His car was turned over to his wife. The search has since been scaled back. Bad weather has moved in, but teams will still go out through the week. Posters will still hang at the trailheads with Hwa's picture and vital statistics. He is 6-foot-1, 155 pounds, a seminary student and part-time minister, a native of Malaysia, here on a student visa.

The search, if it turns up nothing, will effectively end Sept. 1, said Park spokeswoman Norma Sosa.

"We are still hopeful that additional information will eventually surface that will lead us to Yi Jien," the operation's Incident Commander, Patrick Suddath, said. "But we know that the odds for that outcome are reduced with each day that goes by. In the absence of a promising development, we will be scaling back the operation."

If he isn't found, Hwa will join a group of men who were presumed lost in Glacier and never found. In recent history, there have been two.

Larry T. Kimble, 40, of Dorr, Mich., went missing in June 2003. His truck was found at the Rocky Point trailhead. But Kimble was never found.

Another man, Patrick T. Whalen, 33, of Ohio, apparently set up an illegal camp on Glacier's east side at Atlantic Creek. They never found Whalen, however.

As for Hwa, his intent was to keep hiking. After the Glacier trip, he was going to go to Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Grand Canyon and then, to Europe, according to his post.

"My total projected mileage in these boots during the testing period, which I estimate to be from mid-May to mid-September, is between 233-260 miles … If I am chosen to test these boots, I will push them to the limits of their design across the gauntlet of some of the most difficult terrain in the continent, both off and on trail…" Hwa wrote.