Mark Stice - San Isabel National Forest - Colorado

0:00This week at Vons and Albertsons, USDA Choice Tri-Tip Rost untrimmed are 599 per pound, limit 4 roasts with membership wear applicable, and medium-ripe Hassovicados are 99 cents each, with membership wear applicable. Plus Kellogg's cereals 8.8 to 16.1 ounces, selected varieties, or peppered farm goldfish, 5.9 to 8 ounces, are 190.9 each when you buy three. Limit 3 offers with membership wear applicable. Visit Vons or Albertsons.com for more deals and ways to save. Hey, it's Kelly Rowland. You may not know this, but I have Exema, so I get how it can steal your time. But why let Exema take over when you can talk to your doctor about Epglis? Epglis, lubricism app, LBKZ, a 250-mg per 2-ml-liter injection, is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older, who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kg with moderate to severe Exema. Also called a topic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin, or topicals, or who cannot use topical therapies.

1:02Epglis can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you are allergic to Epglis. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have newer, worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with Epglis. Before starting Epglis, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Paid partnership with Lili Respect your time. Ask your doctor about Epglis and visit Epglis.com or call 1-800-LiliRX or 1-800-545-5979. This week at Vons and Albertsons, USDA Choice Tri-Tip Rose untrimmed are 599 per pound. Limit 4 rows with membership were applicable. And medium-ripe, pass-officados are 99 cents each with membership were applicable. Plus Kellogg cereals 8.8 to 16.1 ounces, selected varieties, or peppered farm goldfish, 5.98 ounces are 190-LiliRX each when you buy three. Limit 3 offers with membership were applicable. Visit Vons or Albertsons.com for more deals and ways to save.

2:14Thousands of people have mysteriously vanished in America's wilderness. Join us as we dive into the deep end of the unexplainable and try to piece together what happened. You are listening to locations unknown. What's up everybody and welcome back to another episode of locations unknown. I'm your co-host Joey Roddon with me is always a guy who loves recording on Saturdays because of new babies and being tired. Mike Vanneboegard. Oh thank you, Joey. And thank you to all of our amazing listeners for tuning in. Joey and I are happy to be back. We're recording on a Saturday

3:18morning something something new for us. Not late night during the week when we're tired. So it's very weird. Yeah, hopefully you notice a little more pep in our step today. So before we get going, I'd like to get some patreon shout outs. It's been a bit of time since we recorded the last. So thank you to Jen Deming, Kathleen Robers, Dawn Parker, Cody Welch, and Yafa Chudnau if that is your real name. Yafa Chudnau. So I'm going to do a little research on that while we're also doing research on the show. So you want to call the show. You can leave a voicemail, you can text the show. Just call 208-391-69913. We're probably due for another voicemail episode here soon. So stay on the lookout for that and become a patreon member or a youtube member if you'd like to listen to that type of episode. We've got some other cool podcasts on the network off the trails who runs this park, crime off the grid in relish, and Joe and I are meeting some other people. Maybe there might be some new additions to the network here in the coming weeks. We also can't talk

4:24really about it, but we something we had thought might happen years ago all of a sudden out of nowhere is back on. It would be really big for us. That's all I'm going to tease it right now. Maybe we'll mention more of it in a patreon episode, but could be a big thing. We should talk about a patreon episode. And if you want to hear about it, you've got to be a patreon member. I get why don't we talk about it in a patreon episode because this has been on the back burner for years now. Yeah, why not just say what it is because it doesn't matter anymore? Yeah, okay. If it happens, it'll be really big for us. If it doesn't, nothing changes. It doesn't want to keep doing what we're doing. But if you want to hear about that, you're going to have to join Patreon. Yeah, sorry. At the $100 a month tier. No, we don't. We don't think we have that tier. We do not have that tier. We should make a tier like that and just offer ridiculous stuff. Right. We'll fly to your house and do an episode after six months. We'll do a $10,000 tier where we will fly to and I will fly all of our studio to your house and record an episode live in your living room for 10 gram. Yeah. I feel like we lose money. Probably. Shipping all this stuff.

5:30We lose money. We can't even do that. We can't do it. Outside of that, what's been going on? I follow you on Instagram. You've been all over at Music Festivals. Music Festivals, Italy. Italy? Yeah. It's been everywhere. It's been a very busy. I've seen a much more exciting month and a half than I have. I had like all my babies in my 20s. Yes. I had six like in a row. So yeah, I'll just briefly, for those of you that don't know, we were off a little longer than we expected because my wife gave birth to our third child, a boy. Only problem was he was about three months early. So he wanted his location known now. Yes. Sooner than later. He did not give you his itinerary. No. So he has been in the Nick you will remain in the Nick you hopefully no longer than Halloween, but he's doing really good. So it probably come home sooner than that. But we're off a little longer. Just while all that happened in Joe was busy doing other stuff anyways, having fun. Yeah. Yeah. So I'd like to

6:30tell you what I talk about it. Yeah. What we do was in Venice and Pompeii and like what are you doing? Yeah. In emergency room. It's all good though. Other than that, not much going on. Nope. No. Alrighty, everybody. Let's gear up and get out to explore locations unknown. September 17th, 2013. Experienced Colorado Hiker sets out alone on a five day backpacking trip into Southern Colony Basin. He was prepared to climb some of the rugged 14ers of the Crestone group. He leaves no detailed itinerary, carries no cell phone or emergency beacon and never returns home. Searchers find his vehicle at the trailhead and locate his camps. After grueling eight day through snow, ice and dangerous alpine terrain, they suspended the search. Join us this week

7:35as we investigate the disappearance of Mark Steis. It's a sloppy editing there. No, it's missing. No, no, no, no. Oh, that one. Yes. After grueling, but then I did. No, it says after grueling eight days through snow and I just left off the ass because I can't read. Well, you'd left off the search part after an eight. After grueling eight days of search, eight day, no, grueling eight days through snow, ice and dangerous alpine terrain, they suspended the search. If I just said days instead of eight day, oh, I guess that's why like and it's there. It's right. I just can't read. It's been too long. Oh my god. Every time I make a mistake and I have to finish, it's so mental because I'm just like, oh, well, I don't want to re-record. I mean, yeah, we've never re-recorded, but we did one. Oh, we did one time. It was so awful. Yeah, it was so awful. We couldn't use it.

8:39And for those listening, you know, the bar is very low. The bar was so low. It was really bad. It was like not even funny. It was just like, okay, this, no, just start over, just throw it in the garbage. Yeah, that was one time. And it was only one minute in. And that one I don't even think was the summary. It was the intro. Yeah. So like we literally like, all right, just reset. This isn't even starting over. Absolutely. Okay. Anyway, this the location today is San is a bell national forest in southern Colorado. The sublocations are the song raid, de Cristo wilderness, and some interesting facts about this area. It means blood in Christ in Spanish named in 1719 by the Spanish explorer Antonio Valverde. Causio is that causio? Causio? Causio? Whatever. Reportedly moved by red alpine glow on snow-covered summits at sunrise. The crestones were the last major Colorado 14ers to be climbed. Albert Ellingwood made the first a sense of crestone peak,

9:40crestoneadle and kit Carson peak in 1916. The Ellingwood Arte on crestoneadle bears his name and is one of the deadliest routes in the CCSAR mission statistics. The helicopters that flew the Stice search came from the HAATS in gypsum, Colorado. The US Army's only high altitude helicopter training school. So that's kind of nice. That is like right nearby where you're missing. Yes. Every US military helicopter pilot who deploys to have Afghanistan or other high altitude theaters typically trains there. The pilots searching for marker among the world's most experienced high altitude rotary wing crews. So like he had everything he was working in his favor. Yeah. The hydrological divide between the Arkansas River watershed and Rio Grande watershed runs right through crestone peak summit. Water from the east side flows to the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi. Water from the west side flows the Gulf of Mexico via Rio Grande through New Mexico and Texas. That's really funny. It's like dead right in the center. Right in the middle.

10:43A little in-depth description of the climate. The high-songrated crystal rain sits at the meaning point of two very different weather regimens. Dry high desert air pushing up out of the San Louis Valley from the west and moisture continental air spilling in from the plains to the east and the peaks themselves are the wall that those systems collide against which is why the range generates its own weather with almost no warning. The climate above 12,000 feet is alpine and unforgiving in every season. Summers are brief and cool. Winters are long and severe and even in the warmest months overnight temperatures at the lakes and above confobulo freezing. Summer days are typically clear and calm through mid-morning but give way to violent afternoon thunderstorms which build over the peaks almost daily and in July and August and drive climbers off the summits with lightning, hail and sudden temperature drops. By mid-September when Mark was on the mountain, the range is in its shoulder season or straddle season. The daily thunderstorm pattern is fading but the first true winter storm of the year begins to sweep in from the northwest and that

11:46transition from summer to winter can happen in a single afternoon. That would be really annoying. Yeah, I would. This is a big argument in my household. I don't like fall. Oh really? I don't. I understand why people like fall but I love summer so much. It's just the end of summer to me. Okay. So spring is one of my favorite straddles. Oh, yes. See, I like the beginning of fall. So like fall in Wisconsin still sometimes feels like an extension of summer but it's like less humid. See, that's the end of spring. Spring seems more rainy and cold. It's all new life. Yeah. I do like hoodie weather though. Yeah, that's fall. Yeah. And like, you know, like football is just starting and I don't care about football. October fast. I don't really care about October fast. I just want to be in heat. Are there any cool music fest that start in fall? No. They all go downwards warm because people want to be outside and dance. All right. Anyway, so you're wrong. Do you remember?

12:48Anyway, did you ever when I lived in Bayview, they used to have a festival in January called Mittenfest. Yeah, you know, I never went to that because it's outside and that's stupid. I went to one year and it was the most miserable thing I've ever done in my life. It was like two degrees out. Yeah. And like, everything was outside and and it was just dumb. The only way to not get cold was to just get super drunk and just not feel the cold. Yeah. That's why we drink so much because it's so terrible here for six months out of the year. Yes. And taxes are high. Snow is possible in any month at any altitude at that altitude. And by mid to late September, fresh snow on the summit is expected rather than surprising. The peaks can pick up several inches to a foot of snow from a single early season storm blazing the rock with ice and turning routine scrambling into technical hazardous ground. I bet people don't think we cut there because I just so abruptly changed back to the script. Yeah, right. Just over talking. What it's it made me sad. Yeah. Above treeline, the wind is nearly constant and often severe. 30 to 50

13:51mile an hour gusts are routine on the ridges and a system moving through can bring sustained hurricane force wind at the summit's driving wind chills down even when the thermometer reads well above freezing. That just sounds awful. Yeah. Once the weather closes and on the terrain visibility can collapse to a few feet and minutes, snow, cloud and blowing rhyme obscuring the trail markers and the route finding landmarks to the climate depends on the descent safely, which in the cross-dones is exactly the moment when wrong turns become a fatal one. Mark Stice disappeared in the Sangeride crystal range of southern Colorado. It's one of the narrowest and most abrupt mountain ranges in the lower 48. Oh, real quickly. Yes. We just had a new term that probably people haven't heard of her most rhyme. So rhyme is there any reason for it? It's a white rough layer of ice that forms when super cool to blow freezing water droplets and fog or cloud freeze instantly upon contact with cold objects. Oh, sounds awful. There is a reason for it. There is.

14:54So bad. That's your new fact for the day listeners. There's go. Rhyme. We need something in a soundboard for when we learn something though. The more you know, yes, something like that. So a wall of rock that rises nearly 7,000 vertical feet and only two or to three horizontal miles above the valley floor. So that's basically a wall mountain. A wall of rock. A wall of rock. The heart of the search area is a deep, glacial carved alpine basin ringed on three sides by 14,000 foot peaks with two icy alpine lakes at its head and a thin sub alpine forest thinning into open tundra as the ground climbs towards the summit. Above about 12,000 feet, the country becomes entirely treeless. Bear rock, tundra scattered talus with no cover for weather, no shelter, nothing to break line of sight or slow person losing their way in a white out. So that's where you just got to hunker down when you can't see or you're going to miss all the curves turnaround. Yeah. The peaks surrounding him are steep, cliff broken and cut by narrow

15:55gullies and exposed ridges. The kind of terrain that requires scrambling and careful route finding rather than simple hiking where a wrong turn or on a descent can cliff a clamor out onto unservivable ground. The rock itself is a rare, knobby, conglomerate found almost nowhere else in Colorado riddled with slots, chimneys and hidden voids between embedded boulders that can swallow a fallen body and conceal it within feet of searchers. Established trails and reconstructed summit routes exist in Southern colony basin, but upper climbing routes can still require exposed scrambling and difficult navigation. Cell phone reception is unreliable, so hikers should not depend on cell phone connection. And overlaying all of it is the weather. Snow freezing temperatures and final storm are possible any month at this altitude and mid-September when Mark was on the mountain is exactly the season when the first series winter storms of the year begin to sweep through the range. So I always say every one of these disappearances if you're a long time listener in the show, it really a lot of it boils down to someone hiking or climbing in a location really at the

16:56wrong time of the year. Yeah, it's like perfect storm stuff. Yeah, like I, whatever about this location, I would just say that maybe like June or July would be a better month to hike it or come up. Just go into the the seasons that aren't treacherous. Yeah, obviously snow can happen any time at that high up, but why risk a major winter storm if you could just do it a month earlier? That's just my thought on it. Well, we'll find out, I'm sure. Because like I sometimes like a sucker for making things a little bit more difficult. This week at Vons and Albertsons, USDA choice tri-tip roast untrimmed are 599 per pound. Limit four roasts with membership were applicable. And medium ripe hassovacados are 99 cents each with membership were applicable. Plus Kellogg cereals 8.8 to 16.1 ounces, selected varieties, or peppered farm goldfish 5.9 to 8 ounces are 190.9 each when you buy three. Limit three offers with membership were applicable. Visit vons or Albertsons.com for more deals and ways to save.

17:59Cool to go through them. Not necessarily a perfect cool enough and clear blue sky. Yeah, why add a terrible winter storm on to it? You know what Mike, it brings up an even larger field. So if I saw a question, why climb mountains at all? You're right. Like there's really, if you break it down and might have said people, there's zero need to do that anymore. Yeah, like for any reason, I can't think of a real good reason. I mean, I know why I like going hiking. Oh, yeah, I love it. And I'm going to continue to do it. It's a way to recharge and disconnect, but yeah, you're right. I mean, some people just are thrill seekers. Yeah, and it's just a fun climbing. Yeah, and some people love climbing in treacherous conditions, probably just like hiking and backpacking deep into a park is more of like a meditation type thing. It clears your mind. Yeah, I do. I know. That's why I can speak on how dumb it is. I like you get up there and I'm so excited. I'm like, I did it. Yeah, I like the heights you did that were more technical and treacherous. Yeah, that was fun. I'm not saying

19:03I don't enjoy that feeling, especially once you're done. Yes, that you like can kick back like, I did it. Yeah, exactly. That is a good feeling. It's bragging rights. Yes. So I'll get a, I'll get a tattoo for doing Kilimanjaro. I don't know what I might just do like the coordinates. There you go. I don't know. Right now. All right, just right now. You're forehead. A QR code. Yeah, QR code on my face. For $10 billion, I'll do that. 10 billion. Yep, 10 billion. You can be $10 billion. I'll put a QR code on my face because then if anyone makes one of you, but like, you know what? I got $10 billion. Yeah. Yeah. And it'll be a link to the website of how I'm spending my money. Hey, after you get the 10 billion, just pay to have the tattoo removed. I would even, if the stipulation was you've to leave it on forever, like, okay, I don't ever have to work or do anything ever again. Not to go too far down this tangent, but what if the requirement was your entire face had to be the QR code? So like even eyelids, like when you're closed would be part of the QR code. Lips, nose, there is a dollar amount. Because I would look at that like taking a hit for generational wealth. Yeah. Like,

20:08like you are going to look ridiculous to the day you die, but like 500 billion dollars. Okay. And then like the year later, AI takes over, there's no economy. It was pointless. I'm like, you said this tattoo on your face. Money's not worth anything. That would happen to me. I'd be like, all right. I somehow tricked everyone to give me all this money. That's not worthless. Yeah. And the economy just flips over and no one needs money anymore. Well, hopefully the technology would be there to have it removed. Yeah, probably wouldn't. All right. You want to tell us about Mark, Mike, Mark. Okay. You know what? How does travel safely? Oh, did I skip that? We don't have to do it. Let's let's skip it. Oh, leave, leave an itinerary. Let people know where you are. Don't go off trail. Okay. There you go. That's pretty much what it is. Listen to one of our previous episodes. Yeah. Carry a beacon. Just rent one. Carry a, yeah, personal locator beacon, a satellite phone. We'll know how to use a map and compass. Tell someone where you're going. Listen to all previous of our episodes. Sign the trail registers. Stand trail. If the weather's bad turn around.

21:11There you go. We should have a button where we record how to do it safely and just hit it and sit back. Right. That's the same thing every time. Yes. All right. Mike tells about Mark. Okay. Our subject of tonight's case is Mark Samuel Albert Steis. He was born April 15th of 1977. The date missing is a little unsure because he didn't really leave an itinerary. The date a lot of people use the September 17th of 2013. This was the last known date that he was going to be entering South Carolina, Basin and he was due home on the 21st and obviously reported over to the 22nd remains have not been found. He was male age 36. He was six foot two roughly about 220 pounds. He had brown hair, brown eyes, other characteristics. He typically wore glasses, which a coworker had pointed out later in the search and rescue operation. No other really reported distinguishing marks like tattoos or scars or QR codes on his face. Pretty just normal.

22:14Looking guy, we got a picture of him up on the big screen here. If you're watching the video, pretty typical 36 year old male. Yeah. So nothing wrong with that. Kloving and Geary was last seen in. His mother said that he may have been wearing a blue jacket and carrying a dark blue backpack. The earliest bulletins from the search and rescue operations that he may have been carrying a rope, which would have been kind of an unusual item for a solo trip to this area. So that may have suggested he was planning on doing some repelling. But to tell you the truth, almost every hike I've gone on, I've brought some rope with. You never know if something goes south, you might need that. This is the thing that we was talking about. We get made for like, you don't need that. Yeah, you're right. It don't. Yeah. And you don't need to wear seatbelt either. But you know, when you do need it, when you get in an accident. Yeah. So if I ever gone lost and they found my backpack, they would find all kinds of stuff in it that, oh, this guy must have planned on doing this.

23:15But a lot of times it's just in case. Yeah. And rope is one of those things. Bring it in that same, bring like a hundred feet of line with you. But maybe have 15 feet of rope. Just something. There's been hikes will be been on where you can get up the part of the hike you need to go without any technical ability. But it would have been nearly impossible to do with a backpack on you get to the top. And if you have 15 feet of rope, you can tie your bag to it and then just pull your bag up. Yeah. And now you're not risking the like falling and getting hurt. Word. Word. So you know, he was believed to be carrying a standard multi-day backpack with the appropriate gear for late summer early fall conditions. Rescueers later concluded he was probably not adequately prepared for the rapidly changing weather. Like Joe mentioned earlier, he carried no cell phone and no emergency locator beacon. That's a big no-no for locations unknown. At a minimum, have your cell phone with you because Joe and I have both been hiking in remote random places. And once in a while you pick up a signal like that could be life or death if you're lost. Yeah, absolutely.

24:17And you know, I've been on summits and all of a sudden I get like a bar. Yeah. And I'll suddenly get texted Cassie and be like, I made it. I was on Mount Reneer and I had full service. And I had service in Kilimanjaro. Yeah. I literally I didn't know how. And then I'd get back home and at my house I'd have no bars. So explain that one to me. So his vehicle, a 1995 white Chevy suburban, explain that one to me cell phone. Cell phone. Was found parked at the lower gate of the South Colony Road. That was on September 22nd. Personality wise. So his mother described him as a very experienced outdoorsman who had been hiking since he was a boy scout. Co-worker posted under the username, user 11 described Mark as resourceful during the search. He was described by many as a devoted family man, father of two young daughters. And his mother's public words during the search were, how do you explain to a three and five year old where daddy is? So you know, it's very difficult

25:17situation. I can't even imagine how that would play out. He was a self directed and independent. He was very comfortable with multi day solo backpacking trips hitting 13 of colors 54 or 14 years in the 18 months before he disappeared. So as Joe knows as a person who's attempted multiple 14ers, it's not an easy adventure. No. So he did 13 of them in the 18 months prior to his disappearance. Yeah, that's he's going now. It helps it. He lived out there. Yeah. I mean, if you lived out in Denver, you would probably have done a lot more 14ers. I would try and do all of them in like a year or two. Yeah, just get it done. Well, just to see if I can because there's people that do it all within like a certain like in the summer season or something. Yeah, I'm going to look at it up just make sure I'm not lying. But either way, 13 of the 54 or 14ers in 18 months is a pretty amazing accomplishment. He was an ambitious as a hiker, but he was described as not reckless in the public record. His objective is progressed from easier 14ers to harder. So that's a good thing.

26:19So if I was starting out at my 14 or journey, I wouldn't pick the hardest one. I would start with easiest one and work my way up. The one you you tried that the one with the hypothermia story, which we don't have to tell, but yeah, I won't tell it. Do you know where that one ranks in the difficulty of the 54? Honestly, it's relatively simple. Yeah. It was just weather pushed us off. Yeah. So like it's I mean, it's dangerous, but like more people do that one than then a lot of the other ones. Yep. So I'm like double checking this, but it looks like the fastest someone climbed all of Colorado's 14,000 peaks was nine days, 25 hours and 51 minutes. That doesn't sound correct at all. Go to that. There's like 52 of them. Read that article. Oh, 58 14ers and 14 days. Holy crap. Okay. Well, read that article while I'm going through this because I'm curious about that. That's pretty wild. Apparently, like this this other I'm seeing different names doing it like 14 days, 16 days. Yeah. Holy crap. All right. So also outside of hiking and climbing,

27:24he was a craft beer enthusiast, which makes sense for the time period of the case. Remember, the early 20 teens like craft beer was like all the rage. Yes. There were new craft breweries popping up like every other day. Yeah. I think Seattle is built on just craft breweries. And he'd recently began brewing his own beer. Another thing that lots of people were doing at the time. Yeah. Everyone I knew was like, they're going to be the next like big brewer, but he was believed to have habitually descended 14ers by different routes than he ascended, which search and rescue flagged as potential risk factor, medical issues, nothing that I could find that would be a leading driver for him going missing. Obviously, he was at a very good fitness level. He'd been 13, 14ers in 18 months. Yeah. So you can't, you know, you can't be a weekend warrior and do that. You got to be in pretty good physical condition. But Andrew Hamilton in 2015, nine days, twenty one hours and 51

28:27minutes, he climbed 58, 14ers. Wow. That's wild. That is wild. Yeah. I'm lazy as crap. We all are by that. Occupation hobby. So his day job was a dispatch supervisor for UPS, which he started at in 2001, his supervisor role was inadvertently confirmed during the search when a forum poster wrote that stice was my boyfriend's boss. Education, he graduated from North High School in Denver in 1995 and then earned his Bachelor of Science and Business Administration from College America in 2005. His hobbies were obviously mountaineering, doing the 14ers backpacking, camping, fishing. So anyone, I would love to live out west. That would be my hobbies too. Just hiking and backpacking and all 100%. I'd be up in the mountains every weekend. I could. Yeah. At least their cold has mountains with it. Yes. Experience in the wilderness. So he was, I would say a serious weekend mountainer with roughly

29:28two years of experience in Colorado's 14ers. He, like I said, you climbed 13 of them in 18 months, a pace that placed them among the states most committed weekend high altitude hikers. Recent summits included Humboldt Peak at 14,064 feet, the eastern rim of South Conley Lakes basin in May. Longs Peak, 14,259 with his brother Brian in early September 2013. Multiday solo backpacking was a part of his established practice and this trip was no different. It was going to be a five day plan, which was not unusually ambitious for him. So experience in that location, Steis had summited Humboldt Peak in May 2013 the easiest 14er in the Creston group and the one that shares South Conley basin as its access point. So he had been to the basin before, but not only in spring conditions and, but only in spring conditions and only for the group's easiest peak. Custer search and rescue explicitly stated that he was not known to have any local

30:32knowledge of the technical challenges that might, that he might encounter on a more difficult peak in the area. So meaning Creston Peak at 14,294 feet, Creston Needle, 14,197 feet, Kit Carson Peak at 14,165 feet and Challenger Point at 14,081 feet. Here's a little image for those watching of just rugged and notherworldly. Yeah, it was. This from the search and rescue, one of the images. Okay, cool. Yeah, that's gnarly. It is gnarly. So like I said, there was no records that in a KD ever climbed any of those peaks before this trip. And also he did not sign the trail register and summit register anywhere in the sangrated crystal range during his September trip. He also unfortunately left no itinerary. He just told his wife only that he was going to hike in the Creston Peak area. So it is unknown which peaks he attempted or even what order or by what routes. So that that's, that's, that's so sad.

31:33That's really what hamper's the search. We've even said it a thousand times. They'll add a minimum at least tell somebody what your plan is. Because if in the unfortunate event you do go missing that gives search and rescue a spot to start because in conditions like this every hour matters. The longer he's up there, the longer there's a risk of a bad situation happening. So if you tell someone where you are, they can zero in right away on the route they think you might be on and you might get found. So always tell someone where you're going. All right, let's get in the timeline here. We're starting off September 17th to the 21st of 2013. So Mark sets out alone on a five-day backpacking trip in the South Colony Basin in the San Isabel National Forest. And he was intending to climb some or all of the 14ers. We just don't know because there was no itinerary left.

32:36Like I said, he simply told his wife he was heading to this area to do some of the 14ers. And again, like I said, he left no itinerary with family friends, co-workers. So no one knew which peaks he was going to be trying to summit. They could have been summer all of these. So Humboldt Peak, Creston Needle, Creston Peak, Carson Peak, or Challenger Point. We just don't know which one. To make things even more difficult, he carried no cell phone or any type of emergency locator beacon. And like I just had stated, he signed no trail registers. Rescueers laid out we've learned about they can do that like pop up mobile cell phone thing, which like I can't believe I haven't heard more about it. Yeah, with more people of its cell phones. But yeah, that's another reason to bring one with you is if you get lost, you can turn it on. Maybe it's just so common now that a lot of the western search and rescue teams use it. Hey, it's Kelly Rowland. You may not know this, but I have Exama. So I get how it can still your time. But why let Exama take over when you can talk to your doctor about Epglis?

33:37Epglis, Lebrichizama, LBKZ, a 250-mg per 2-ml leader injection, is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older, who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kgs, with moderate to severe Exama. Also called a topic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin, or topicals, or who cannot use topical therapies. Epglis can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you are allergic to Epglis. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. I problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have newer worsening eye problems, you should not receive a live vaccine when treated with Epglis. Before starting Epglis, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Pay partnership with Lily. Respect your time. Ask your doctor about Epglis and visit Epglis.com, or call 1-800-LilyRX or 1-800-545-5979. This week at Vons and Albertsons, USDA Choice Tri-Tip Rose untrimmed are 599 per pound, limit 4 rows with membership wear applicable, and medium-ripe hassovacados are 99 cents each,

34:38membership wear applicable. Plus Kellogg cereals 8.8 to 16.1 ounces, selected varieties, or peppered farm goldfish, 5.98 ounces are 190-99 each when you buy three. Limit 3 offers with membership wear applicable. Visit Vons or Albertsons.com for more deals and ways to save. Rescuers later concluded that he was probably not equipped for the rapidly changing weather. I mentioned that earlier. And this judgment was sharpened by rescuers by the fact that without the known route, searchers would eventually face 10-20 more square miles of wilderness with no place to start searching. Obviously during this trip, the weather turned very quickly. An early autumn snowstorm struck that range over the weekend of the 21st and 22nd. It dumped snow on the peaks before clearing early the following week. His mother later pinpointed the same storm. She was quoted saying it was Sunday night when we had already gone when he had already gone missing that it snowed. This is what has hindered the search. And overnight temperatures near the

35:42Creston Peak fell roughly 10 degrees Fahrenheit that week as well. The 21st came and went with no word from him. It's now September 22nd of 2013. For those watching, I'm just going to follow Creston Peak assuming just to give it since we don't know exactly where. At least I'm going to look at reviews and I'll bring that up from this one. But that's what I'm basing this off of just going forward. Cool. So for the fact checkers in the audience, we know it's unknown. Yes. Picking this one. Yes. We're picking that one. Yes. So like I said, it's now September 22nd of 2013. Michelle Stice reported her husband overdue at this time. Deputies and searchers very quickly found his vehicle that same day parked at the South Colony Trailhead specifically at the lower gate on the South Colony Road Southwest of West Cliff. Because the road above the gate is closed to ordinary vehicles, the car's position really implies that he had walked on foot from there. And the Custer County authorities initially estimated

36:42he could have hiked another 10 miles to reach the Creston Peak area. So just based on the initial search where they found his car, looking at Creston Peak first made the most sense because that based on all of that would be likely the maybe the first peak he would have hit that night at 108 a.m. on the 23rd of poster identified as Alpine Rescue team put out an appeal on the 14ers.com climbing form. They wrote we currently have a 37 year old male solo hiker that took a 5 day trip into the South Colony Basin to climb some or all of the 14 foot peaks in that area last Tuesday 917 his vehicle was located lower gate on the South Colony Road today again just a slight note the age was there's some discrepancy online about his age some say 37 some to say 36 so just keep that in mind. So if you can see here yeah here is the trailhead okay so this is why it's so difficult.

37:43The same trailhead breaks off neither humble peak Creston Needle or Creston Peak okay so so you can really hit all three of them you can hit all three of them trail and but it's like such a huge area for searching so if you for sure which ones who's going to do and when you could at least go you can focus in that area and that could be I mean in this condition life and death if you can shave off days yeah so or 20 square miles of searching yeah exactly so yeah because and these types of trails too I'll see if I can do 3d it's so difficult to go off trail too far because you're in the mountains let's see if I can rotate this but look at you're like in that little basin like you're not going to go up each side of the mountain no the trail already is kind of following the easiest path up exactly why would you deviate and add work to your it's it's not going to benefit you at all it's not going to be faster even if you're better I wish I could rotate like in Google Maps it's almost probably like if there was no trail there that would be the natural way you would go

38:44up because it would be the easiest it's like how the water cut down the valley yeah so if they knew what mountain they could go along that trail yeah in that order and it would be much easier to potentially find that person so please leave your itinerary yes at this time an early tele dead and vert television report on September 24th framed the ambiguity that would define the search with the car at the South colony trailhead stice could have been hiking like Joe said humble p crest or the other peak the Joe mentioned I can't remember what you said now is humble peak east crest on peak or crest on needle needle those are the only 14ers because all the other ones are 13 yeah okay so the search really kicked in the high gear between September 22nd and the 29th of 2013 the search ran for eight days volunteer teams came from all over Colorado custer freema Douglas counties plus Vale mountain rescue group and western state they were coordinated with

39:44the Colorado search and rescue board which arranged aviation support a Lakota and a black hawk helicopter from the high altitude army national guard aviation training site known as hats at gypsum helped and roughly 800 volunteer man hours went into those eight days so the one positive you can come away with for this disappearance is there's probably no better search apparatus than in Colorado for searched like alpine search and rescue I mean make I'm sure there are but these people have to these people are some of the best trained search and rescue people in the world I would say with you know yeah I agree not only one of our original shows we met with I'm forgetting his name was it Paul no from the from the rescue place I know you're talking about yeah I can't remember and he was so good and he was a volunteer yeah but like the professionalism and like okay you know your stuff and he worked at a cell phone store yeah most of the time so there they have their stuff together so yeah not only the search apparatus but they

40:46also have that army helicopter training school there where you've got some of the best alpine helicopter pilots in the world also helping out on the aerial part of it if you're gonna go missing I guess Colorado pick Colorado because I think they've probably got one of the strongest overall search apparatus so all the different searchers the coordination between them the technology the skill required so that's just my opinion after doing a lot of these cases I'm not downgrading the searching prowess of any other region or location but I would say Colorado probably if it isn't up there it's probably one of the better overall areas for search and rescue I'll probably get a lot of comments like all the search rescue people from not in Colorado yeah what are you talking about so the hazards during the search were unusually severe for a September search they had difficult terrain significant snowfall ice crusted rock it rock falls ice falls daily freeze and thaw cycles Ron Varney of the Custer County incident command describe

41:51the conditions bluntly at the time this is his quote it's still pretty dicey out there as far as getting up into the real high country but with snow and ice yes and added the sentence that has since become the cases kind of slogan there are places up there that a person can get in trouble and we may not be able to find them for a long time the first physical trace of him being in this area came pretty early in the search though exactly when it became known to searches is disputed Denver's CBS for reported that crews found his tent sleeping bag and fishing pole on Sunday so pretty early out in the search Custer County search and rescue's own account is more precise and different so they went the vehicle was found on September 22nd but his campsite was not located until the 24th both statements can stand together and early find a good say exactly where it was roughly the early find of scattered gear reported to the press and a formally located catalog campsite was then

42:53announced either way the campsite confirms stice had reached the basin established a base and left it to climb he had carried a fishing tackle as well as climbing gear to the basin it's now September 24th this would be the largest single day of the search a hiker who submitted humble peak that morning up at 4 30 am climbing two days after the storm recorded scene army and army national guard helicopter circling the crestones looking for a missing climber which then he said it buzzed him for the rest of the descent and you know he was passing ground search teams on the way down primary search area was crest on peak and kit Carson peak with the total area of interest reaching as much as 50 square miles and technical climbing teams working three separate 14ers by September 25th a lot of forum members on you know like 14ers.com and stuff we're circulating what they believed to be a photograph of stice found through open web searching and since people are

43:58asking so this was a quote from one of the forum members since people are asking for a photo of this missing hiker I did a little searching and may have found picture of him right hopefully if this is him someone who was up there over the weekend will recognize him and be able to help saw in their search and then there was on the 25th a co-worker actually confirmed confirmed that the picture was mark oh somebody actually had a picture of him I think well I think a co-worker yeah forum members found okay just by searching the internet okay towards the end of this period rumors had be started to circulate that the search had begun the search had been called off and those were corrected in real time on the 26th and 27th a member relayed the incident commanders word directly they wrote I just got off the phone with the SAR team and they have not suspended the search and will continue searching this week and another poster with contact inside the operation added the crucial nuance here so they wrote the search remark has not yet been suspended but it

45:04has been scaled back there have been teams in the field for five straight days as of today with a monumental effort given this past Tuesday and finally sadly crews were wrapping up the search on the 28th with nothing new and they returned to the mountain for one more day by the 29th this would be the last day of the search Janice Stice's wife speaking to CBS 4 as the search has worked above her describe the train as mine boggling and said the family had been told Custer County search and ask you had assured us that they will search as long as they can until the snow gets too deep so she so this is the basin so it does cut off the approach yeah so if you had tackle I bet you set up camps on around the lakes yeah but that's still two different ways you can go and then you break off here to go to crest on needle or crest on peak so it's a smaller search area than this yeah but it's still three different 14,000 well and this is why you see the search radius up to

46:0550 square miles because there's just really they don't know yeah and look at that in that terrain 50 square miles is so much to search I mean even with an incredibly massive search team you're not gonna get everything yeah so here's the 314 years crest on peak needle and humble peak so it's somewhere in this that seems really cool though that they have trails to all those because an experienced hiker climber could probably knock those out in a day or two oh yeah that's the one time I did 414ers in a day yeah because they're just all you don't have to climb down each time you go summit to summit along the saddles yeah or the straddles the straddles the search is winding down people are sad that this is happening but we see it every search they can't keep it going forever a lot of times it shuts down because of weather and if they kept going they'd put the searchers in just as much danger so the immediate aftermath of this search so we're talking September

47:0630th to December of 2013 word of the suspension reached the climbing community on 30th from a woman whose partner worked under stice ups she wrote they've suspended the search they did find his campsite but have not found him in the same thread another member wrote that many were thinking the mystery of it is just manding a lot of people ask how could experience hikers just disappear into thin air like this we ask this all the time this was right around the time that another experienced climber went missing in the maroon bells we did a case on him I can't think of his name now but so this area has seen some other disappearances I don't know if I'll try to like it up while you're going I can't think of his name it was we did the episode quite a while ago yeah I'm not I'll figure out you can keep going there was Michelle vannich I think she disappeared in this area I can't remember exactly where and then there was a gentleman that also disappeared climbing in the

48:06climbing the maroon bells so you can oh there we go that's a dog cook that's what I'm hoping that with the search things so why did he go missing 2016 okay maroon bells peaks located maroon bells no mass wellness so yeah Dave cook was episode 60 yeah a few years later than stice but same and maybe once you're done here see how far away maroon bells is from this area right now and then I'm just curious now you've got me thinking while you're doing that Michelle vannich that was a case we covered vannich we'll do a live fly right here here we go to other side of that not that close no not that close yeah other side of the state yeah he's down here maroon bells up there okay I think maybe what posters are getting at is just kind of another experienced climber just vanished Michelle vannich went missing in the mount of the holy cross area in 2005 so that's close yeah so it's not shocking that people go missing in these locations

49:19because they're very rugged remote this is actually I just saw this these are ones I did democryl Lincoln bros and there's one other small one that's technically a bros is on private land you're not supposed to go there but everybody does there's some other peak that like people argue if it's a peak or not yeah right in here but you can do all these just by you can't you can't down here yeah go up and just do like a big circle cool it was really it was relatively simple to do it was a lot of fun like I'd bring my kids to do that cool so yeah like I said word spread of the the search being canceled pretty quickly especially through the climbing community and people were just talking for the for years I've been talking about the various like experienced people that have gone missing in this region in maroon bells mount of the holy cross it's this this range actually is part of another case we covered in the great sandhu national park if you zoom out how far away is that so it's got to be down there that's it right I'm going too crazy this stuff no it's

50:26further over I think it's over there well that's mobs that's Utah so here's the state line okay I'm gonna I'm just you know I'm gonna do look it up yeah maybe just use this amazing tool called Google there we go look it's saved because we've been there all right there yeah we're wrong spot wrong spot so now where is our case it's for our case oh there's a price down yeah so actually this is really close yeah right there to the guy that went missing twice in great sand dunes yeah because this mountain range when I was researching this like oh that's familiar we've covered it I think it helps create the great sand dunes yeah it's like so yeah just you know the days after the search statewide coverage confirmed the same day that the search had been suspended they said he was still missing they mentioned in the wires car was found some of the gear was found things that he didn't take with him there was a follow-up published on October 1st that mentioned the search was called off eight days after he went missing through October hikers

51:31still moved through the crestones and treated the cases closed in fact if not on paper a trip report published October 14th added a note at the end that missing climber search and rescue team was looking for Mark Steist my knowledge has still not been found in late November the family made the decision to actually hold a memorial service without his body and a pituary's ran in the Denver Post on November 24th of 2013 the the families own words closed the notice said while we believe he will someday be found the time has now come to remember him and celebrate his life the bjwery listed his date of death as September 18th of 2013 one day after he entered the basin and obviously this date has no source to substantiate it as the actual day he passed away it's just what they used for the memorial and since this disappearance there's been no recovery no remains and no new physical evidence reported and what happened what happened to him out in that

52:35mountain 2014 a Colorado mountaineering fatality review published a listing that showed Steist among the unresolved 2013 incidents and set his body had never been found after the search ended in 2015 I'd love to give this get this guy on the show Kevin G Wright an English teacher in longtime volunteer with the alamosa volunteer search and rescue published search and rescue in Colorado sangriate Christos through a bigger with publishing in 2015 and one of his chapters was devoted to Steis and you know it said Mark Steis backpacked in the crest on group and was never heard from again October 6th of 2017 there was a revision to the 2014 mountaineering review and it's still described Steis' body has never been found and the cause unknown it didn't list any new clues in the case and the 2022 there's really not a ton of information on this case and definitely

53:41not a lot of new information there wasn't really any case specific public updates there wasn't any renewed large searches that I could find their community forums Reddit podcasts YouTube public Facebook searches really didn't produce much of anything on the case and it's kind of one of those lesser known cases so one of the reasons why I thought it would be interesting to do and it's kind of one of those cases where he will go into theories now but it like the forum members like he just kind of vanished now the bad weather the treacherous terrain the lack of an itinerary yeah all contributed and the theories I have here are ranked from Mike's probability high to low it's fall in jeep country and during the drive into fall sales event get a great deal on four by fours that refuse to be contained like jeep rankler confidence built into every drive with the most awarded SUV ever jeep grand Cherokee and freedom that can't be denied with the

54:44open air freedom and jeep gladiator after 85 years it's no surprise that jeep became America's SUV get a great deal during the jeep drive into fall sales event jeep is one more awards over its lifetime than any other SUV brand jeep and the jeep grill register trademarks of FC a us LLC a snarl and they're upon him an ancient forest spirit at his heels the only escape is in the Toyota BZ woodland john chose stars in camping test drive Toyota's new all the electric family today Toyota let's go places all right so number one theory that I ranked the highest is he had some type of fatal off route fall on descent in the crest on group so this is kind of an umbrella theory it could cover all of those peaks you were showing not just eat any of the peaks you might be what have gone on sure and this is actually one of the only theories that the custer county search and rascuse own public language like in their releases they explicitly said stice was reported to frequently descend off route and had no

55:47local knowledge of the technical challenges on the harder crest on group peaks despite having summit at humble earlier that year and another cc star partner gs g is study of the crest on group missions between twenty fifteen and twenty twenty one found that crest on needle alone accounted for forty almost forty nine percent of the missions and sixteen of the twenty four needle missions occurred on descent and that twelve of those reclimbers offer out on the south face below thirteen thousand four hundred feet and then an independent compilation identified fifty seven deaths on Colorado's fourteen years from twenty ten to twenty seventeen including thirty eight falls the elk range led with eighteen recorded fatalities followed by this range with fourteen and the fort range with thirteen so stice a solo hiker male age thirty six his first visit to a technical peak based on what i read he was known to go off route when descending this kind of fits

56:51precisely into those statistics that those studies released about where the most fatalities occur in these ranges so that's why i rank that is the most likely the reason for what happened to him yeah next i give this a medium on my exprability score weather driven exposure hypothermia we're gonna have to come up with visuals for the we will and i can like put them up on the screen yeah i'm rolling out that yeah the my exprability my so i love it yeah so this is a no-brainer significant early autumn snowstorm hits the range that night and the center for snow and avalanche studies logs seven inches of snow on the ground at that time at eleven thousand feet so that's a lot of snow and overnight temperatures near crest on peak fell to ten degrees Fahrenheit and a lot of people in the case his own wife said the weather just got crazy around that time the but the storm's real role in his disappearance is probably not

57:55it probably didn't like cause the disappear disappearance but it definitely concealed the evidence of where he was yeah so he may have still fallen but the terrible weather in tons of snow coming down just covered up any tracks of them any giri might have dropped anything like that so it just makes the search even more hard yep i agree i mean that's just gonna yeah obscure everything you're trying to do yeah and now kind of melting into this theory my probability this would be a medium for why he wasn't found again goes back to the snow concealed terrain trap so fall into a snow-filled void or moat or anything like that the freeze thought ice and encrested rock throughout the eight day search created concealment conditions a climber who summit in humble on September 24th described the whole creek as a snowfest with calf deep drifts the crestones are conglomerate Joe talked about the terrain it's riddled with slats chimneys gullies and the range does hold semi-permanent ice

58:58on the north face facing ground including on kit karson and in crestones peak so it's very easy that maybe he didn't fall and it started snowing and he the in one of these like areas was concealed and he just fell into it and the searchers just aren't gonna find it so I could see that unfortunately yeah next theory which is on my Mike's probability score of medium to low is off route deviation into rarely traveled drainage so this theory goes the standard creston peak route already leaves the south colony base an overbroken hand pass and drops into cottonwood lake from that point a loss climbers downhill instinct leads west away from camp cars and searchers cottonwood creek below the lake has no continuous trail only carons with waterfalls and glacier polished slabs and many opportunities to cliff out so if he went west via spanish creek they're bailing west via spanish

1:00:00creek is an option for only the truly desperate requiring a requiring an ascent above south colony the bearers playground crossing then a rough a burn area descent so east toward the west mountain valley is the least plausible a hiker walking east downhill emerges into ranch land roads and the town of west cliff people don't think this was the case that he traveled out of the search area was so big anyways that he's probably up on one of those peaks somewhere I think so yeah he his intention was to hike that area why would he leave the search area do they do they say incorrect me if I missed it because I was searching for the map like the wet the weather did come in when he was expected to be up there there there was a bad snowstorm that came in so it might isn't my turn to guess oh I'm almost done okay I'm sorry I'm getting I'm getting really excited yes sudden medical event on Mike's probably score this is low so we cover these all the time it's mainly like

1:01:01a cardiac a cardiac event he was very physically fit he did a lot of 14 years I I put this as a 36 years old he had no known conditions he's done a lot of these 14 years lives in Colorado it's a low probability another low probability is drowning in South County cottonwood or will a lake he did carry fishing tackle into the basin and they recovered the fishing pole at his campsite but I believe the lakes researched and they didn't find any evidence of it I don't know that he would he wouldn't have gone been going swimming in those lakes no I don't see how why you would even be out there if he's I mean absolutely absolutely I'm sure he's fishing for food maybe yeah just for fun another low is just animal attack Colorado has recorded roughly four mountain line linked human fatalities in its entire history with about 28 tax total since 1990 only four fatal black bear mollies have occurred in Colorado since record keeping began in 1960 and the campsite was not

1:02:08disturbed there was no torn gear no blood probably was not an animal attack now could there been scavenging post accident that could be a medium probability so he fell and then over the course of several days weeks animals sadly will disperse the remains I wonder if it's that big at that altitude because right down in the basin there's maybe animal activity down in the basin yeah not a bit else you know as I'm gonna say I think above the tree line he's above the tree line yeah the black bears aren't gonna go above the tree line but yeah down if something happened down at camp that could possibly happen but I still that's only a medium and an actual attack I think is low finally very low probability voluntary disappearance nothing in his life indicated that he was gonna do something like this what's wrong I'm just making sure I didn't unplug something important oh I think we're good okay good I'm just I'm just I'm just looking everything's fine keep going

1:03:12another low probability foul play just there was nothing that investigators could point to to indicate any type of foul play missing 411 very low probability our boy David Pleitus hasn't even talked about this guy so if he hasn't brought up the case yet it's definitely not Bigfoot he's all over the cases where he can link Bigfoot to it yes so yeah he's never appeared in any of his books it I haven't read any of the recent book but any of his older works usually once Pleitus gets wind of a story then some of the more off the deep end theories come out of the woodworks so those are all the things what do you think I don't I think it's just a simple add out this is like my guess yeah he was at altitude dorm comes in goes off track if he was already descending yeah and he was known to descend down different pathways that maybe he thought was easier if you get with a storm get lost yeah I think he either clipped out or got stuck somewhere fell somewhere

1:04:18injured yep and succumbed to the elements and then that storm came in and concealed yes whatever evidence there might have been well and it's so rocky and the thing that stuck out to me is they have and I've been climbing in mountains where you have like large boulders mixed with small stuff and you can fall and slip between them so if you're in a whiteout conditions walking you slip into some I don't know what it would call but between rocks and you kind of get then you're going to get buried by maybe not buried like completely but if it's cut the holes covered up now by light snow I don't know that seems like over the top but yeah no I mean I think that theory is the most likely yeah and it just got lost in succumbed elements I think he his remains are in that range somewhere probably within that three peak area I'm sure but it's so large I mean like we'd never be found 50 square mile search radius maybe someday something will be found you never can say never because we once in a while here of a case we covered in like a bone fragment or something was found yep

1:05:19so you never know but we know he was out there because they found his gear and his car and it's likely that he sadly passed away on one of those peaks either ascending or descending probably descending and most likely during that storm yeah probably when it happened and then it was buried yep that's I think I think that's most likely I don't even have off the deep end no I don't have nothing there that would would point is no out of the ordinary no so all right well thanks again for tuning into locations and known we appreciate you all for listening and sharing the show with your friends and family be sure to like and follow us on Facebook Instagram Twitter and YouTube where you can find videos of each episode also if you'd like to support the show monetarily please visit our website or Facebook Facebook store that to buy some sweet sweet swag you can subscribe to our patron account YouTube Apple subscriptions anywhere where you can subscribe to have access to special events additional shows for paid customers only

1:06:21and lastly when enjoying the beauty of nature whether backpacking camping or simply taking a walk always remember to leave no trace thanks and we will see you all next time

1:07:26it's fall in jeep country and during the driving to fall sales event get a great deal on four by fours that refuse to be contained like jeep Wrangler confidence built into every drive with the most awarded SUV ever jeep grand Cherokee and freedom that can't be denied with the open air freedom and jeep gladiator after 85 years it's no surprise that jeep became America's SUV brand yet a great deal during the jeep drive into fall sales event jeep is one more awards over its lifetime than any other SUV brand jeep and the jeep grill register trademarts of FCA US LLC