By Chuck Plunkett
Denver Post Staff Writer
A massive search for missing hiker Michelle Vanek failed to find the active mother of four Saturday, a week after she disappeared in the upper reaches of 14,005-foot Mount of the Holy Cross outside Vail.
More than 200 people searched throughout the day. One hundred volunteers combed the wooded areas in the thin air at timberline, while 100 seasoned search-and-rescue members worked a grid over the mesmerizing boulder field near the summit.
The 35-year-old Lakewood woman was last seen among the boulders Sept. 24.
“I can only assume there will be another search (today),” said Capt. Bill Kaufman, of the Eagle County sheriff’s office. “We have the needed resources and the weather is good.”
Kaufman described the boulder field as a half-mile-wide, 2-mile-long stretch of disorienting rocks both small and large.
“They all start to look alike,” Kaufman said, imagining it from the perspective of a lost hiker. “You don’t know if you’ve walked five feet or a quarter-mile away.”
The rocks also can be treacherous. As you walk over them, some appear solidly placed, but then suddenly tilt beneath you, Kaufman said.
Vanek’s unnamed companion has said she stopped before reaching the summit to rest. He went on to the top. When he returned, he said, she was gone.
The mountain was coated in snow when a storm hit Wednesday morning, but weather has since been more cooperative.
Searchers have employed dog teams, helicopters, and now Saturday’s massive grid system, but so far they have uncovered no signs or clues to help them.
A medical team that includes a surgeon is standing by a helicopter ready to respond at the first word Vanek has been found, Kaufman said.
He said that searchers still believe she could be alive.
Staff writer Chuck Plunkett can be reached at 303-820-1333 or cplunkett@denverpost.com.
