Minturn – A massive search for missing hiker Michelle Vanek was called off late Saturday, a week after she disappeared in the upper reaches of the 14,005-foot Mount of the Holy Cross outside Vail.
“Michelle’s loss cannot be replaced, but you have assisted us with it,” family friend Bob Davis said late Saturday in a statement thanking searchers. “Michelle now walks with God.”
Vanek’s family now will focus on her four children, Davis said. About 30 family members who searched throughout the day went back to Denver on Saturday evening to be with her children, he said.
About 230 searchers combed the mountain throughout the day, including 100 volunteers who fanned out across the wooded areas in the thin air at timberline. Another 100 seasoned search-and- rescue members from 14 squads around the state 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, at about 13,800 feet, said Tim Cochrane, Eagle County Sheriff’s Office incident commander.
Officials described the boulder field as a half-mile-wide, 2-mile-long stretch of disorienting rocks small and large.
“It’s been quite emotional,” Cochrane said. “There’s a lot to admire about this gal and the way she lived her life, which is why the mountaineering community was so drawn to help.”
On Saturday after dark, groups of searchers, some wearing heavy backpacks with snow prods strapped to them, continued to filter into the temporary command center set up at Minturn Middle School.
Another 50 searchers were spending the night at a camp on the lower flanks of the mountain and would return in the morning, Cochrane said.
Searchers believed Vanek lost her way in the boulder field and fell in a cliff area just below.
A 66-year-old woman who got lost in the same area about eight years ago managed to survive nine days before searchers in a private helicopter spotted a flash of red on the ground and saved her, said Steve Zuckerman, one of the searchers.
“That’s one of the things that drove us so hard this time,” Zuckerman, 42, said. “I think she fell somewhere in that cliffs area.”
Vanek’s unnamed companion said she stopped to rest before reaching the summit. He went on to the top. When he returned, he said, she was gone.
There is no evidence of foul play, said Bill Kaufman, Eagle County Sheriff’s spokesman.
The mountain was coated in snow after a storm hit Wednesday morning.
Searchers employed dog teams and helicopters, but uncovered no signs or clues.
“The chances of survivability at this time are very low. We feel like we’ve done everything we can at this time,” Cochrane said, adding that a climber who disappeared on Blanca Peak 10 years ago, another Colorado mountain above 14,000 feet, was found just recently about 500 feet from where he fell.
“I believe the mountain will give Michelle back, just not today,” Cochrane said.
Staff writer Chuck Plunkett can be reached at 303-820-1333 or cplunkett@denverpost.com.
