Glacier Park scales back search for missing hiker

Michigan family sends message

With no new clues on the whereabouts of missing hiker Jakson Kreiser, Glacier National Park officials announced Aug. 4 that search efforts were being scaled back, and Kreiser’s family issued a statement to the public on Aug. 6.

“It is extremely difficult for us to imagine that we have lost our beautiful son, Jakson,” the family said. “We believe that he has found the world’s greatest resting place. Jakson absolutely fell in love with Glacier National Park, all that it has to offer, as well as all of the people he came to know.

The search for the 19-year-old male hiker began after he failed to return following a day hike on July 28. Dispatch received a call late that night saying Kreiser, a seasonal employee with Glacier Park, Inc. at Lake McDonald Lodge, was overdue.

Kreiser is from Michigan, and this is his first year working in the area. He is 6 feet 2 inches tall with black, short, curly hair and a black beard. It’s believed he was wearing a yellow sweatshirt and khaki pants and carrying a gray and yellow backpack.

Park rangers found Kreiser’s vehicle at the Logan Pass Visitor Center parking lot. Ground and aerial search efforts were initiated Sunday, July 29. A Minuteman helicopter carrying forward-looking infrared technology flew over the area.

One area of focus was between Hidden Lake and Avalanche Lake, which includes steep terrain, rock cliffs, waterfalls, dense vegetation and slippery rocks. The creek draining Hidden Lake flows into Avalanche Creek.

On Tuesday, however, certified trackers from North Valley Search and Rescue along with a Park employee found a partial boot track near Mary Baker Lake, in the Floral Park area, that matched the sole pattern of Kreiser’s boots.

The Floral Park area, however, is miles away from the creek that drains Hidden Lake to Avalanche Creek, and is on the opposite side of Bearhat Mountain. A new theory was that Kreiser was not trying to reach Avalanche Lake from Floral Park. The terrain there, however, if much steeper and dangerous.

More boot tracks were found in the Floral Park area on Wednesday and Friday, but the weather had turned bad. When weather conditions improved on Saturday, search operations continued, but no new clues were found.

“Throughout this difficult ordeal, we feel blessed to have been embraced by the Glacier National Park family, to whom we would like to express our sincere and heartfelt thanks,” Kreiser’s family said. “These men and women have been concerned, caring, courageous and amazingly compassionate in their search for our Jakson.

“We also want to thank all of the extended family here at Glacier National Park, including all of the assisting agencies and the folks at the Lake McDonald Lodge.”