{"id":33233,"date":"2023-06-26T19:30:59","date_gmt":"2023-06-27T01:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/search-underway-for-missing-hiker-in-la-plata-mountains\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:07:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:07:17","slug":"search-underway-for-missing-hiker-in-la-plata-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/search-underway-for-missing-hiker-in-la-plata-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"Search underway for missing hiker in La Plata Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Classic Air Medical helicopter, stationed at Southwest Memorial Hospital, responded to an ATV crash in the Sage Hen area Monday evening. (Courtesy Montezuma County Search and Rescue)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Rescue workers have been searching this week for a 28-year-old man who failed to return from a hike Saturday evening in the Echo Basin area of the La Plata Mountains.<\/p>\n

The missing individual was identified as Ian OBrien, of Page, Arizona, said Montezuma County Sheriff Steven Nowlin.<\/p>\n

OBrien was camping with his girlfriend near the upper end of Echo Basin along Forest Service Road 566. He went hiking about 2 p.m. Saturday to Hesperus Peak, a hike he had done in the past, Nowlin said.<\/p>\n

Rescue workers know he made it to the peak, because he took a photograph and shared it about 6:30 p.m. \u2013 about 4\u00bd hours after he set off on the hike, Nowlin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was supposed to be back, and it got dark,\u201d Nowlin said. \u201cThey started looking for him, couldn\u2019t find him and then notified us about 12:30 in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ian
Ian OBrien, 28, went for a hike Saturday afternoon north of Echo Basin but failed to return that night. (Courtesy of Montezuma County Sheriff's Office)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The sheriff activated the Montezuma County Search and Rescue team, which included an aircraft that searched for a couple of hours at night without finding any sign of OBrien.<\/p>\n

Two more aircraft and ground crews joined the search Sunday morning, he said. About 30 ground crews were involved in the search Monday.<\/p>\n

By 9 a.m. Tuesday, 12 teams were assigned to the search, with more en route, Nowlin said. A U.S. Air Force Blackhawk helicopter was also searching the area, as well as a helicopter normally used for firefighting activities. And a second helicopter team was en route from Kirkland Air Force Base to relieve the first team.<\/p>\n

La Plata County Search and Rescue also joined the rescue effort this week, he said.<\/p>\n

OBrien was reportedly wearing a gray tank top, black shorts, tennis shoes and possibly had a long-sleeve hiking shirt.<\/p>\n

Nowlin expressed frustration that hikers don\u2019t better prepare themselves for the eventuality that something might go wrong on their outings.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was not really dressed for this, at all,\u201d Nowlin said. \u201cEven though he is an outdoors person, had a lot of extensive hiking in the wilderness and what not. \u2026 I don\u2019t know why folks can\u2019t be prepared in the outdoors. It\u2019s sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

OBrien did have a GPS unit and possibly some snacks and a hydration pack, Nowlin said. OBrien also reportedly suffers from epilepsy, which can lead to seizures, Nowlin said. He possibly had his medication with him.<\/p>\n

The temperature dropped to about 38 degrees early Sunday but rose to about 79 degrees Sunday afternoon, he said.<\/p>\n

Search parties resumed their efforts at 8 a.m. Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing everything that we can,\u201d Nowlin said.<\/p>\n

shane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OBrien, 28, went missing Saturday afternoon after climbing Hesperus Peak<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,658,60],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-33233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-hiking","tag-montezuma-county"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82117,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33233\/revisions\/82117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33233"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=33233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}