CHEYENNE — An American rescue team had no luck on its final day of searching for a Wyoming poet missing on a remote Japanese island, but a Japanese team will continue working, a rescuer said Friday.
Craig Arnold, a University of Wyoming assistant professor of English, vanished April 26.
In Japan as part of a creative-writing program, he was hiking on a volcano on the island of Kuchinoerabu- jima, which is about 30 miles off Japan’s southern Kyushu island.
David Kovar, of the California- based 1st Special Response Group, said Friday that four members of his team followed Arnold’s tracks over the top of the volcano to an extremely steep area of the island.
Arnold’s tracks showed that he was heading back to a lodge where he was staying on the island after crossing the volcano, Kovar said.
“We believe Craig was going cross-country at that point, and the terrain got progressively more difficult to travel,” he said.
The team must leave the island for other commitments, he said, but the Japanese government has committed a technical climbing team to continue to search the area identified by the American team.
Earlier, Kovar said the team had dramatically reduced the size of the search area to under 2 square miles of dense vegetation and steep terrain, and expressed hope that progress would be made.
“We know where he last was and the direction of travel,” Kovar said Friday. “It gives us a great deal of confidence that something should be resolved today — or if not today, then local resources can continue to work it.”
He added that it would be difficult for Arnold to survive in the area, particularly if he took a fall, but said that “people have survived in worse environments.”
Arnold, 41, is the author of two award-winning poetry books.
He was in Japan through the U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission’s Creative Artists Exchange Fellowship and was working on a book on volcanoes.
Kovar said the Japanese government has committed a technical climbing team to continue a search of the area identified by the American team.
“We were still working it up until last night,” Kovar said.
The Japanese team will continue the search using ropes to lower themselves into difficult areas, Kovar said.
Time and the weather will degrade Arnold’s tracks, Kovar said, but some signs could remain for many weeks.
Kovar emphasized that his team’s work so far to find Arnold this week has involved considerable support from the local community and officials.
