Search for missing hiker faces tough terrain

[thedrifter]

denver & the west
Search for missing hiker faces tough terrain
80 people scour park in 2nd day of hunt
By John Ingold
Denver Post Staff Writer
DenverPost.com

Boulder County - Searchers scoured the steep and treacherous mountainsides surrounding Eldorado Canyon for a second day Thursday in an effort to find a 21-year-old Marine who fell while hiking.

About 80 people, some with dogs, on horseback or riding all-terrain vehicles, searched an area the size of more than 600 football fields on the western edge of Eldorado Canyon State Park, hoping to find any trace of Lance Hering.

"We want to find this boy," Hering's father, Lloyd, said Thursday afternoon. "We think he's up here. We're searching really hard."

Hering hasn't been seen since early Wednesday, when his friend Steve Powers left him about a mile and a half from the Eldorado Canyon trailhead to get help.

The pair had been hiking and climbing boulders Tuesday. About 10 p.m. Tuesday, when they were at the top of a drainage called the North Draw and heading down, Hering fell about 15 feet and landed on his head.

The fall opened a gash on his head and knocked him out.

When Hering regained consciousness about four hours later, he was "loopy," Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said. After Hering's condition stabilized, Powers went for help.

When rescuers got to where Powers had left Hering on Wednesday morning, Hering was gone. All that remained were a water bottle, Hering's climbing shoes and some spots of blood.

Pelle said searchers have found no additional clues, but he said officials do not believe they are dealing with anything but a missing and injured hiker.

"We're operating on that fact that everything we've been told is true," Pelle said. "He had a head injury. And with a head injury, it can be really unpredictable."

Hering likely has nothing with him but the clothes on his back - a black T-shirt that was torn to fashion a bandage, khaki pants and tennis shoes. But Lloyd Hering said his son is a capable outdoorsman with survival training he received in the Marines.

"A strong person can live three, four, maybe five days without water," Lloyd Hering said. "And Lance is a strong person."

Lloyd Hering said his son returned from a seven-month tour of duty in Iraq about a month ago. He was scheduled to return in a couple of weeks to his unit, which the elder Hering said is slated to redeploy in January. He said his son was excited about being a Marine.

Late Thursday several Marines, some from Lance Hering's battalion, arrived at the incident command post to help with the search.

Lloyd Hering said Lance may have made it out on his own and is now walking around in public disoriented. He urged anyone who may have seen his son to call Boulder officials at 303-441-4444.

Lloyd Hering assisted in searching Thursday, as he had the day before.

"It was much better than sitting here," he said, referring to the Eldorado Canyon State Park visitors' center, where the search is being staged. "I want to be working on finding him."

On Thursday, officials divided the search area into 27 separate grids, which crews methodically searched to "85 percent certainty" before moving on. The terrain is jagged and difficult, Pelle said. Searchers were initially focusing on about a square-mile area but had expanded that area slightly by Thursday evening.

"If you took the land by the corners and pulled it flat," Pelle said, "it would probably be three or four times that much."

It also presents unique dangers.

Thursday morning, Melanie Pray with the Boulder Mountain Fire Department saw movement in some brush and went to investigate. When she pulled back the brush, she saw a large mountain lion not 4 feet away, she said. The lion made a small lunge toward her, then ran away.

"I didn't even scream," she said. "I had no breath."

Pray said it had been frustrating not finding any sign of Hering, but she said she was far from giving up.

"You don't stop until you hear someone's found him."

Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Missing climber's dad issues plea for help

By Julie Poppen, Rocky Mountain News
September 1, 2006

ELDORADO SPRINGS CANYON — The father of a missing Marine who vanished with a head injury today asked for help in finding his son in the narrow, wooded canyon near Boulder.

More than 100 searchers from throughout Colorado are expected to join the search today for Lance Hering, 21, a Marine on leave after his third combat tour in Iraq, who was hiking in the area on Tuesday with a friend, Steve Powers. Hering fell, injured his head and lost consciousness. Powers waited until Hering was conscious, told Hering to rest and not move and left to get help. When searchers returned five hours later, Hering was gone.

Lloyd Hering, Lance's father, made an emotional plea this morning, showing a picture of his son taken earlier in the week.
"I want to get Lance's face in front of the public so that if he’s out there and confused, someone can find him," said Hering, a Vietnam era veteran.

Dave Booten, emergency services supervisor for the Boulder County Sheriff's office, said searchers have already covered one square mile looking for Hering and they plan to expand the area to 2.5 square miles today.

Booten said six search dogs spent Thursday night checking the area for Hering, but were unable to locate any trace of the man. Booten said the search in the river near the diversion dam would also be expanded in the event Hering fell into the water.

Lloyd Hering said his son was in great shape, loved bouldering and climbing, but he fears Lance might have internal bleeding in his brain from the fall. He said his son may have been lethargic from the injury and found a place to lie down that's hard to find.

"He’s very self-reliant by instinct. It's not his instinct to ask for help," said Lloyd Hering, who also thanked all the searchers for their help.

Lloyd Hering said a group of Marines would be searching the north end of the Mesa Trail near Eldorado Canyon and a group of ROTC soldiers from the University of Colorado would join the search teams.

He also said friends of the family would check the Walker Ranch loop of the trail and his wife would work with the searchers in the area where his son was last seen. Lloyd Hering also asked hikers on the web of trails in the area to "just look for my boy."

He said Lance Hering was sent to Iraq in January and returned on leave in August. Lloyd Hering dismissed any suggestion his son intentionally disappeared to avoid returning to Iraq.

"He may be on the run from his own confusion but he is not on the run from Iraq," Hering said. "My son has never run from problems."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Fellow Marines join park search
Third day ends with injured Boulder climber, 21, still missing

By Julie Poppen, Rocky Mountain News
September 2, 2006
A group of fellow Marines joined the effort to find Lance Hering, and his mother donned a Semper Fi shirt Friday before heading up a mountain trail, but the third day of searching ended with the 21-year-old still missing.

Lloyd Hering believes his youngest son could be anywhere in the state -– disoriented and just trying to get by.

More likely, the Marine lance corporal from Boulder who returned from a tour in Iraq one month ago is lying unconscious somewhere in the steep, craggy terrain of Eldorado Canyon State Park outside Boulder.

"I believe he's out there alive, but he may be lying down," Lloyd Hering said as 100 people fanned out in the park. "He's a climber. He loves to stop and boulder.

"He could scale a freaking rock then stop and lay down," Lloyd Hering said.

He pushed a photograph in front of news cameras of his son laughing at a birthday party he attended four days before he went missing after being injured on a hike.

Lance's older brother, 23-year- old Brendan, an Air Force lieutenant stationed in Louisiana, flew to Boulder on Thursday to join the search along with his father and mother, Elynne, a teacher.

His father answered a question many have been asking themselves: Could Lance Hering have been trying to get out of returning to the Iraq war?

"No," Lloyd Hering said. "He may be on the run from his own confusion, but he is not on the run from Iraq."

Lance Hering was scheduled to be shipped off to Camp Pendleton in California in a couple weeks.

Lloyd Hering, a Vietnam veteran, said he checked his son closely for signs of stress when he returned home from the Middle East after seven months.

Since he's been home, Lance Hering has spent his time climbing, hanging out with friends and talking positively about his role as a Marine.

"He sees himself as a Marine," Lloyd Hering said. "I think he came back healthy - physically and mentally."

Marine staff Sgt. Benjamin Steck helped recruit Hering. He recalled how Hering approached him at a table at Fairview High School a couple years ago and immediately did 30 or 40 pull-ups on a bar that was part of the exhibit.

"He was the perfect applicant," said Steck, who joined the search Friday with other local Marines. "He excelled academically and was physically fit."

Steck helped prepare the recruit for boot camp. He said Hering would lead the three- or four-mile runs and take his new friends to his favorite climbing gym, The Spot Bouldering Gym.

Steck and a group of 10 Marines wore their camouflage fatigues, hoping that Hering would feel comfortable approaching them after being in combat recently. They were hoping to be the ones to find him.

"It's stressful knowing he came back from Iraq and now he's missing," Steck said. "You expect the worst and hope for the best."

Lloyd Hering described his son as "thoughtful, curious, very bright and very much his own person."

He also said his son is independent and passionate about climbing. "Our family motto is, 'If you're looking for Lance, look up,' " Lloyd Hering said.

Lance Hering and friend Steve Powers went bouldering and rock hopping Tuesday afternoon on South Boulder Creek in the park, then stayed to watch the sunset.

At some point on their hike back in the dark, Lance Hering fell more than 30 feet off the edge of the Eldorado Canyon Trail and tumbled over a short cliff. He hit his head on a rock.

Powers told authorities that he climbed down and stayed with his friend for three or four hours as he drifted in and out of consciousness. Powers also ripped the bottom of Hering's black T-shirt and used the material to wrap his friend's head wound. Then, Powers left to get help.

The Boulder County Sheriff's Office got the call at 5 a.m. Wednesday. When a search-and-rescue crew got to the location where Powers left Hering, they found a pair of rock-climbing shoes, two empty water bottles and a "significant" amount of blood on a rock.

"That surprised everybody," said Dave Booton, emergency services supervisor.

Volunteers have not found any other signs of Hering, who does not have water with him. They have, however, run into a mountain lion and a bear, and one searcher with a twisted ankle had to be rescued Friday.

Lloyd Hering said his son probably woke up in the dark in a gully and had no memory of Powers going for help.

He said his son fell while climbing when he was 11 and experienced a similar head injury, which caused short-term memory loss. But he said the injury had healed.

"He's very self-reliant by instinct," Lloyd Hering said. "His instinct is not to call for help."

Four dog teams were scheduled to continue looking for a scent overnight along with a pair of human trackers, who planned to re-evaluate the place where Hering was last seen.

Today, a military helicopter with infrared capability was expected to join the search, said Division Chief Dennis Hopper, of the Boulder County Sheriff's Office.

"You never know," Hopper said. "We're going to keep up the effort."

Ellie