Body of missing Minnesota hiker found in Wyoming wilderness

Authorities in Wyoming have recovered the body of a Minnesota hiker who had been missing for nearly a month.

The Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office said it located the remains of 38-year-old Grant Gardner on Wednesday in the Cloud Peak Wilderness in north-central Wyoming.

“While it’s not the outcome we hoped for, we are hopeful this will provide much needed peace and closure to the family,” Sheriff Ken Blackburn said in an update posted Thursday.

Gardner was last heard from on the evening of July 29, as he reached the top of Cloud Peak — at an elevation of more than 13,000 feet, in a rugged wilderness area in north-central Wyoming.

Gardner texted his wife that he was planning to head to a lower elevation for the night. He never returned.

Authorities launched an extensive air and ground search for Gardner. Last week, after 20 days of searching, crews suspended rescue efforts and moved to a search-and-recovery operation, awaiting more evidence.

On Tuesday, another group of climbers making camp near Cloud Peak “noticed a slight reflection a few hundred feet above them underneath a ledge. The climbers were confident it was a backpack,” the sheriff’s office reported. “Due to the rapidly approaching darkness, further investigation was too dangerous.”

The climbers contacted authorities, who sent a search team to the area the next day. That team — and the climbers, who aborted their plans to climb another peak to instead help with the search — found Gardner’s body near the backpack. The area had previously been searched, but authorities said Gardner’s clothing closely matched the surrounding terrain.

An autopsy will determine the time and cause of death, but the sheriff’s office said it believes Gardner “succumbed to a tragic accident as we all have surmised.”