UPDATE FROM DENVERPOST.COM: The National Parks Service reports that Hillel Ben-Avi was located alive today in the Hague Creek area of the Mummy Range in Rocky Mountain National Park. Ben-Avi had been missing since he disappeared during a hike on Sunday. The Parks Service said he is tired, hungry and receiving medical care, but no further details were available on his condition.
Rocky Mountain National Park – Ground crews, dog teams and two helicopters resumed the search today for a doctor from Texas who disappeared while hiking in the rugged Mummy Range on Sunday.
Hillel Ben-Avi, 45, a radiologist from Austin, was last seen near the summit of 13,502-foot Fairchild Mountain about 60 miles northwest of Denver in the northern part of Rocky Mountain National Park.
Ben-Avi was hiking ahead of his brother, who last saw him near the summit. When his brother reached the top, Ben-Avi was not there, park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson said.
Patterson said the missing man called park rangers twice from a cell phone Sunday to say he was lost. Rangers told him to return to a lake he had passed and wait for searchers, but they did not know whether he did so.
Patterson said the reception was poor on both calls and that the batteries on Ben-Avi’s phone may have been drained.
About 100 people from the National Park Service, three search-and-rescue teams and two search-dog teams were hunting for Ben-Avi Thursday, and one of the helicopters has thermal imaging equipment.
Nearly two dozen searchers camped overnight today at Lawn Lake below Fairchild Mountain, and one dog team searched through the night.
It was the second time in a month that someone has disappeared in the Mummy Range. Park Ranger Jeff Christensen died on July 29 from head injures he suffered in a fall while patrolling the area alone.
