Nearly 20 years ago, Michelle Vanek disappeared while climbing Holy Cross, one of “Colorado’s most iconic fourteeners.” The trek was considered a nontechnical but particularly arduous climb, especially for a novice. For 5280 Magazine, Heather Hansman reports on how a day trip went horribly wrong, turning into the “largest search for a missing hiker in Colorado history,” and why it took nearly two decades to solve the mystery.
It’s not uncommon for hikers to run into trouble on Holy Cross. Vail Mountain Rescue responds to about 15 individuals or groups there each year. Scott Beebe, a longtime member of the team, says hikers tend to get confused near the summit. Instead of taking the correct route to the North Ridge trail, which looks steep from the top, they can mistakenly head down mellower-looking paths that actually dead-end above cliffs. The searchers traced these and many other routes, looking for Vanek, to no avail. A few days in, snow began to fall. By the eighth, when rescuers were trudging through two feet of powder, the search was called off. Everyone was baffled. “We ended up the last day with not a clue, not a gum wrapper, not a boot print, absolutely nothing,” wrote searcher Tim Cochrane in his report to the sheriff. “How can anyone just vanish into thin air?”
More picks from 5280 Magazine
Did Bad Fire Science Send Tim and Deb Nicholls to Prison?
“When he opens the bedroom window, there’s smoke billowing past his head. The next thing he recalls is waking up outside to a nightmare.”
The Charming, Eccentric, Blessed Life of Lee Maxwell
“As the decades passed, washing machines materialized on his property.”
Everyone Loved a Colorado Prison’s VFW Post—Until a Popular YouTuber Heard About It
“When the VFW opened a chapter inside northeastern Colorado’s Sterling Correctional Facility, the post was celebrated as a victory for prison reform nationwide. So why did it get canceled?”
