The Missing Hikers of Glacier National Park

Today's episode is all about what happens when the wilderness stops being beautiful and starts becoming impossible to explain. First, we're going to go to Glacier National Park, where experienced hikers, local explorers, and even two well-connected brothers have vanished into the mountains, leaving behind little more than abandoned cars, scattered clues, and families desperate for answers. And then we're heading to Mount Everest, where one of the deadliest days in climbing history turned a New York socialite into the most hated woman on the mountain. But first, it's actually my goal to get this show to 1,000 five-star reviews, and we're getting pretty close. So please do me a favor and leave that five-star review right now. And once you do that, drop a comment and let me know where you're from. I'm trying to get to know you guys a little bit better. And so without further ado, I'm Kyle Hates Hiking, and listen on if you dare. Listen to me. Do not go into Glacier National Park alone. I'm serious. Every single year, hikers vanish or turn up dead in the park, and yet no one is really talking about this. When a case happens in Yosemite or the Grand Canyon, the coverage is everywhere. But with Glacier, it almost feels like they're sweeping things under the rug. For example, I'm willing to bet that you've never heard about this story. In 2019, a park ranger was patrolling a quiet Glacier parking lot when a frantic sound stopped him in his tracks. It was a barking dog. The barks were sharp and desperate, but the ranger had no idea where they were coming from, and so he started scanning the rows of cars and finally found the dog trapped inside of one of these vehicles. Kinda weird, but it wasn't too out of the ordinary until the ranger grabbed the door handle. He obviously expected the car to be locked, but when he pulled this handle, he was very confused to find that it was actually unlocked the entire time. And when I tell you how that dog got there and why the car was unlocked, you'll see why Glacier National Park is one of the most dangerous parks in the entire country. But first, we have to meet a man named Mark Sinclair. Mark had been a longtime leader at the Vermont Conservation Law Foundation. He was someone who loved the outdoors so much that he had spent decades fighting for it. By the summer of 2019, Mark was semi-retired and living out in Whitefish, Montana, and earlier that season, he'd even worked at Glacier National Park as a visitor services assistant. Mark clearly knew his way around the wilderness. He understood the risks, and he had nothing but respect for the mountains. But on July 8th, 2019, he learned that all that love didn't guarantee that the mountains would love him back. Around 2:30 PM on July 8th, Mark parked his car at the Logan Pass Visitor Center. He donned a bright yellow bandana, and then he headed straight towards the Highline Trail, which is a popular but treacherous trail in Glacier National Park. "I actually hiked the Highline Trail myself back in 2017. It's incredible. It's gorgeous, but it's also very sketchy. It has a lot of spots where you'll find yourself hiking in like a single file line above these sharp cliff faces with massive drop-offs on the other side of the trail. It's basically the definition of a no-fall zone, if you know what I mean. And when you combine those very sketchy conditions with a ton of people trying to use the trail, well, the chances of something bad happening grow exponentially. One wrong move could mean total disaster." Mark hiked along the Highline Trail, and in just a few hours, he had allegedly reached a point between Haystack Butte and a lodge called the Granite Park Chalet. This is pretty notable because Granite Park Chalet is basically a 7.5 mile or around 12 kilometer hike from the Logan Pass Visitor Center where he started, and so if he had began his hike around 2:30 PM, it would probably have been pretty late in the evening by the time he made it that far. Even for the most experienced solo hiker in the world, that would be a pretty impressive feat. While he was hiking, Mark even allegedly passed some folks on the trail who were staying at the Granite Park Chalet. And this interaction was basically like any other time you or I have passed a stranger while hiking. You know, maybe Mark exchanged a smile or some pleasantries, or maybe everyone just kind of kept looking down at the trail below their feet, but either way, they all went their separate ways, and no one really thought twice about it. However, this otherwise normal moment was about to take on a much more chilling meaning because that was the last time that anyone saw Mark on the mountain. Allegedly. As the sun went down over the Highline Trail, all the other hikers either made their way back to their cars, they set up camp, or they checked into the lodge, but not Mark. In fact, it wasn't until the next morning that a park ranger approached Mark's abandonment. The park ranger had already left the abandoned car at the trailhead and made that shocking discovery that his dog was still stuck inside. This ranger soon realized that the car was actually unlocked and that the keys were also just sitting in there as well. Each new discovery only confused the rangers more and more, especially that abandoned dog, right? Because from all accounts, Mark was a kind and logical man. The only reason that he would leave his dog in an unlocked car would be if he was planning on coming right back quickly. But once again, we know that some people reportedly saw him basically like seven miles up the mountain, and we also now know that he left the keys inside the car. Things just weren't adding up. Search efforts began that morning all over the Logan Pass area. Helicopters scanned the entire spine of the Continental Divide, and the U.S. Forest Service provided daytime aerial searches as well as nighttime infrared flights scanning the darkness for any sign of a human heat signature. Canine units combed steep slopes and cliff faces along the Highline Trail. The rocks are gray, and maybe they acted as some natural camouflage, but then again, maybe Mark's bright yellow bandana would stand out. Maybe he didn't even get that far after all. Authorities also asked the public to report any possible sightings of Mark, and that's actually when those two people reported seeing Mark on the trail. You know, the ones I mentioned earlier around the Granite Park Chalet. Those two visitors called the tip line and reported seeing Mark on the trail. They reported seeing Mark between Haystack Butte and Granite Park Chalet on the Highline Trail in the early evening of July 8th. And so the theories started to go crazy, right? Like, did he encounter wildlife at the worst possible moment? It's not uncommon for the Highline Trail to be temporarily closed due to grizzly bear sightings. This is Glacier National Park, after all. Since 1967, there have been 10 bear-related fatalities in the park, and a number of those incidences have involved solo hikers. Of course, there's also mountain lions and wolves. And so, all that to say, a wildlife encounter would be a very plausible explanation for Mark's disappearance. However, search crews did not find any evidence of an attack. You know, things like tattered clothing or blood or anything that would directly point to an animal. And so, if it wasn't that, then what the hell had happened? Well, park officials had a theory of their own, and. If it was true, it meant that Mark's disappearance was far more baffling than anyone else was predicting. So, officials started to wonder if maybe Mark had actually traveled far beyond their main search area, after all. I mean, did they limit their focus too early in the process? I mentioned it earlier, but if he had really made it to Granite Park by early evening, then he would have been hiking very fast. I personally find it hard to believe that he would have hiked at that pace. And so, I can see where park officials were coming from when they wondered if he had maybe gone down a completely different trail after all. And on top of all that, maybe it's possible that the two visitors who supposedly saw Mark, you know, way up the trail, actually mistook him for someone else. And maybe Mark was on a completely different hike when whatever happened, happened. In my mind, there's one detail in this whole mystery that I haven't really. I mentioned it, but I haven't talked about it enough yet. And that's the fact that for some unknown reason, this kind, smart, and just good person, Mark, well, he left his dog in his unlocked car. And that's the detail that makes me genuinely lean towards the theory that Mark hadn't actually strayed that far from the parking lot at all, and that he was always planning on coming right back. And then there was another possible theory. Did Mark slip on some loose rocks and tumble down a steep cliff? Did he step off trail for a better view and maybe lose his footing? Now, I mentioned earlier that the Highline Trail is insanely narrow at certain points, and there's these huge cliffs, these huge drop-offs. And it would be very unforgiving for any hiker who made even the smallest wrong move, no matter how experienced they were on the trails. And the thing is, if this did happen to Mark, then it wouldn't have been the first or the last time that tragedy struck. To understand just how dangerous this trail can be, you have to actually look at what happened on August 27th, 2025. That's when 73-year-old Diane Bunker and a group of friends visited Glacier National Park from their home state of Iowa. Diane was a retired dental hygienist, a former Jazzercise instructor, and someone who was not going to let her age slow her down. On this particular morning, Diane and her friends planned on hiking the Highline Trail just like Mark had supposedly planned. And again, this is a super popular trail. They were taking their sweet time hiking. also meant that they were able to stop and take in the breathtaking views of of of big sky country montana as they hiked along the trail started to get narrower and narrower and diane as well as her crew found themselves almost clinging to the mountainside in a very thin exposed line again i remember from when i did this hike before either one of these stories happened the gravel on this trail is very very loose and the cliff face below is so steep that it literally makes your your stomach drop i also recall them having cables along the side so that you could grab on i mean that's how like that's how crazy this trail is and i'm not even someone who's usually bothered by heights as well i mean it's it's insane and so anyways the group continued to move slowly across the thin trail until suddenly the the unthinkable happened all of a sudden a single trail boot shifted kicking up gravel into the air and over the edge of the cliffside below before anyone in the group could react to the slip they heard a sharp sudden cry that sliced through the wind and in all of the dust chaos and confusion the group looked around and they realized that diane was gone they rushed to the edge and they looked they looked over it which is freaky enough but they couldn't see anything clearly just hundreds of feet of nothing right they called out diane's name over and over but they never got a response at approximately 11 a.m park staff were alerted that a woman had fallen from the highline trail rangers responded swiftly and emergency crews were mobilized and it wasn't long before the group of hikers could hear the massive roar of the two bear air rescue helicopter that's the name of the organization two bear air they heard this helicopter gliding along the cliff face scanning the steep terrain beneath the trail i mean this is just again i keep saying it but as someone who's been on this trail like i can't even imagine this man the mountainside dropped roughly 450 feet all of which is jagged unforgiving rock and as the rescue crews lowered into the canyon they finally located diane bunker unfortunately it didn't take long after they got to her that they realized that this was not a mission to save her this was a recovery mission and so she was transferred to the county coroner's office and she had passed away from the traumatic injuries that she sustained in the fall park officials responded to this disaster about as quickly as anyone could ever hope but sometimes not even the best rescue crews can undo one false step even on one of the most popular trails in a very popular national park diane's story is tragic and to bring it back to the first story mark's story i can't help but wonder if maybe that's the same thing that happened to him and maybe in his case especially in the fall she had passed away from the traumatic injuries that she sustained in especially because he started so late maybe there was just nobody around to see it after tons of searching and very little to work off of search crews were beginning to lose hope of ever finding out the truth of what happened to mark and unfortunately for mark's sweet dog and his sweet family anyone who loved him no one ever found out the truth on july 18th after nine grueling days of searching the park scaled back their their organized efforts to find mark the operation moved into what they called limited continuous mode you know patrols would continue and the investigation would stay open and search teams would ramp back up if they ever got like a credible tip right and so back home in vermont mark's friends and family and former colleagues even waited and waited they held on to the idea that maybe somehow he would walk out of the park unharmed but there's never been a single sign of him to this day no backpack no footprints and no yellow bandana now both mark and diane's stories are chilling reminders of just how dangerous it can be when you're in the mountains but sometimes the strangest outdoor mysteries can take you to the bottom of a deep dark lake as well meet 68 year old barry j trajan of columbia falls montana he was a humble local man who was retired and loved to occasionally explore the incredible national park that was pretty much right in his backyard but of course this version of a backyard doesn't just have swing sets or purred baths it has frigid alpine lakes grizzly bears rugged cliffs and tons of other stuff that's constantly trying to kill you on july 22nd 2020 barry decided to hike around kintla lake right near the canadian border he parked at the kintla lake trailhead and he headed into the forest but in all of his excitement for this beautiful summer hike barry broke the number one rule of solo hiking and that was the first time he'd ever been on a hike and that would be of course although there's probably a lot of number one rules but um this one's there's no rule that's that's less important than this one the rule is that you have to tell people your plans like you have to let someone know where you're going when you're going right and barry's lack of communication was about to become a serious problem because his car would sit at the trailhead for the rest of the day and then the day after and then the day after that finally three days later park rangers noticed that this strange car still had moved and when they ran the plates they realized that barry trajan was missing investigators jumped into action on land in the water as well as in the sky they started by using local search and rescue teams to sweep the trails around the shores of the lake and then they were supported by the crews from two bear air helicopter to scan the forest from above they were trying to look at at this mystery from like every possible angle but days and days passed without any breakthroughs before finally everything changed when they turned their attention not to the shores of the lake but to the actual lake itself on august 4th over a week after barry went on this mysterious hike a group of search and rescue personnel were hiking along kintala creek which runs in and out of the lake when one of the team members spotted something extra shiny kind of shimmering in the current of the creek and as they walked closer and closer to this mysterious shiny object they could see that it was very out of place you know it wasn't a rock or a shell or or anything natural it didn't belong there one of the crew members waded into the shallow waters bent down to get a closer look but finally you know just had to reach into the creek himself in order to know for sure and so he slowly lowered his hand into the very cold water he grabbed the object and it turns out it was a pair of sunglasses this was like the the first real real clue in a case that had been getting increasingly desperate by this point and investigators did in fact have reason to believe that these waterlogged sunglasses belonged to barry and so with this lead they brought in extra ground and canine search teams in the area you know they could now prove that barry had been nearby and they also knew that something had gone wrong or at least something must have happened that made him drop his sunglasses right at first the canine handlers could tell that the dogs were showing interest near the creek and along the water's edge but the dogs eventually ended up losing that scent it was becoming crystal clear that if they wanted any hope of finding barry they needed to seriously level up their search equipment and so that's exactly what they did after the sunglasses were discovered search crews decided to deploy a remote operated underwater vehicle to probe the dark frigid depths of kintah lake they used the sunglasses to search for barry and so they did and they found that barry had been found they used this vehicle to search below the surface trying to find any other sign of of barry but even with the latest technology they were not able to crack this case and so where where could barry have possibly gone did he maybe run into a grizzly bear or some other kind of wildlife out there maybe he had to run away from something and that's when his sunglasses fell into the creek although if that was the case search crews would have probably found some other kind of evidence like some torn clothing or or footprints or trail of blood even but they didn't find that stuff all they found were those sunglasses maybe whatever happened to barry wasn't even an accident at all i mean i did some basic digging and i found out that the canadian border was only about one and a half miles away from the northern tip of kintala lake and i couldn't find a lot of personal information about barry and his life but there's a part of me that wonders if maybe he just decided to keep walking north until he made it to canada i don't know this was 2020 again and so that was a crazy year for all of us who knows what anyone might have been thinking but then again of course i can't imagine a 68 year old could just manage to live off the grid in canada for six years with just the clothes on his back and so that theory is probably wrong let's be honest this case is just filled with so many unknowns that you know in a way we are kind of forced to come up with our own theories um because as of august 10th 2020 the search for barry shifted into what officials called again limited continuous status and to this day he's still considered missing this story is just so heartbreaking man and it really makes me feel like i need to repeat myself one more time if you are solo hiking please please please tell somebody where you are going it might just save your life barry might have fallen victim to an endless underwater nightmare but this next mystery feels even more unhinged because search crews couldn't even find one single clue before everything went sideways on october 10th 2020 the search for barry was closed on october 10th 2020 and the search was closed on october 26 2003 a group of hunters were out in the wilderness near marion montana when they came upon something truly gruesome as they walked along a remote ridge they first discovered a mysterious duffel bag on the ground like that's that's never a good sign one of the hunters bent over to unzip the bag and inside of it he found a 22 caliber pistol and again you know the duffel bag was one thing but now finding a gun hidden in the woods is even worse but their day truly became a nightmare when they picked up the bag to find something even more horrifying on the ground below a human skull so let's back up just a little bit and allow me to introduce you to a man named larry kimball in may of 2003 larry was 39 years old and he was from a town called door michigan not montana he had brown hair brown eyes and wore his long hair and a ponytail now at this time larry was unfortunately going through a breakup with his longtime girlfriend and by you all accounts from his friends and family he was at a real crossroads in his life and things were about to get much much worse on june 16 2003 an unknown 1998 blue gmc pickup truck was first spotted by park rangers at the rocky point trailhead in glacier national park the rangers noted that the truck looked strangely abandoned but they decided to just kind of keep an eye on it i mean maybe the owner was just out camping in the backcountry and would come back for it shortly but days passed and nobody returned to the truck rangers watched it closer and closer with each passing day arriving each morning to find it exactly where it had been left still empty and completely abandoned and so after a week of waiting park officials finally made the decision to impound this truck and that was on june 23rd and once they ran the license plate it led them to its owner and things only got weirder and i say that because this truck of course belonged to larry kimball his truck was found abandoned in montana but as far as anyone in larry's life knew he was still supposed to be hundreds of miles away at his home in michigan and to make matters stranger this truck didn't have like a note or any indicator that he was coming back anytime soon and so how the hell did it get there well actually maybe that's kind of a stupid question i i obviously assumed that the truck technically got there because someone drove it there but i'm really asking that question because larry's brother john told deputies that no one had seen or heard from larry since april and like i said if you had asked anyone in larry's life they would have told you that he was still in michigan but the truth finally started to set in they had lost track of their friend and now larry was suddenly missing in montana back in michigan authorities searched larry's home expecting to find something that that explained why he traveled to glacier national park i mean maybe they could find like a map or a guidebook something right well they couldn't find anything that explained his sudden and apparent urge to explore the montana wilderness larry wasn't known to be interested in hiking or camping and he certainly had never mentioned this trip to anyone in his life and so back at the park rangers finally searched his truck and this is when they found their most important clue yet while digging in the console of the truck rangers discovered a park entrance receipt that had a date of may 29th and so finally they could begin to piece together larry's timeline but of course it still left so many blank spots larry might have entered glacier on may 29th but the park is absolutely massive i mean he could have been anywhere between the day that he entered and the first day that anyone noticed his truck you know over two weeks later on june 16th the entrance receipt was was good evidence for sure but without anything else to go off of it was kind of turning out to actually be pretty useless by june 27th missing person flyers were quickly tacked to the bulletin boards at fish creek campground and around the rocky point trailhead search dogs and involuntary search and rescue teams spread out sweeping the forest floor scanning ravines they searched for footprints discarded gear anything but of course they came up with nothing that first search lost momentum but they started a second search effort on july 10th and this time they put together more organized grid patterns and put even more boots on the ground but then as if larry's disappearance wasn't already awful enough the park was hit with complete disaster the robert fire blazed through the east side of glacier national park in mid-july of 2003 destroying nearly 13 000 acres of forest including some of the areas where search crews had had been desperately looking to find larry and it also forced search crews to redirect their energy away from larry's search and so what could have possibly happened to him my my first like red flag in this case is just the lack of information that i could find on the last time anyone actually saw him i mean his official doe network profile says that he was last seen in michigan by family in april of 2003 but i mean that leaves multiple months between his last known sighting and the moment that his truck was discovered in mid-june and so did he really manage to not see anyone else for that entire time or is there someone out there that isn't talking about the last time that they saw larry one running theory the authorities had was that it's it's possible that larry had somehow fallen into the nearby lake mcdonald this lake has a rugged shoreline and if you weren't experienced or even just if you weren't careful you could easily slip into it and drown however it's important to note that despite multiple searches crews found zero sign of larry in the lake or even in the surrounding area and of course i'm also left to wonder if authorities might have been more successful in their search if they hadn't been forced to deal with the robert fire i mean maybe the huge distraction of this fire made them miss a key breakthrough or or even more likely maybe the fire even destroyed key evidence and it's also entirely possible that larry went out into the forest couldn't find his way back or maybe he encountered dangerous wildlife i feel like i say it in every single story but i mean this is glacier after all there's tons of grizzly bears hell maybe he even fell victim to foul play nobody knew and without any additional evidence there was just no clues on even where to start that is until those hunters found the mysterious duffel bag the gun and the human skull in october of 2003 when the authorities finally arrived to inspect this discovery they were able to recover additional remains and some personal items including a knife some sunglasses an electronic poker game as well as a bunch of other like personal items but the isolated location and the scattered belongings they didn't really give the police any clear answers about the man's identity or how he how he actually died right and so an autopsy would eventually determine that the remains belonged to a caucasian male approximately 21 to 36 years old and roughly six feet tall and this this john doe had suffered trauma to the right side of his head but investigators couldn't determine whether it resulted from like a fall or something like a gunshot wound the john doe's death was officially ruled inconclusive and though the case went cold for more than a decade authorities obviously couldn't help but wonder the same thing you're wondering right now was this john doe actually larry kimball larry had disappeared earlier that spring and was presumably somewhere in the area of glacier national park not far from the town of marion where these remains just so happened to be found and so i really hate to say this but is it is it possible that larry was experiencing you know deep sadness and heartbreak you know he had just gone through this breakup and maybe he wanted to end his life far away from his family maybe he drove out to scenic montana left his car and then trekked for a few days with his duffel bag of supplies including some marijuana and that poker game you know maybe he was trying to get some some last bits of relaxation and fun and maybe eventually he just found a nice quiet spot and took his own life where his remains and his gun were eventually found now i really spelled out that hypothetical situation in a lot of detail there and i did it for a reason i did it for a reason i did it for a reason because i think on the surface that sounds like the most plausible theory here however you need to listen to this so marion montana is almost 60 miles away from lake mcdonald from the fish creek campground and all of the general places near where larry's car was found and as a lot of you know i'm an avid backpacker i've done i've done a lot of 60 plus mile backpacking trips and it's is not easy i find it hard to believe that an inexperienced hiker like larry especially without the proper gear could pull off something like this honestly and so i guess maybe he could have hitchhiked all the way out there instead but that also hinges on the fact that larry was feeling so sad and you know searching for peace and quiet away from other people and so i find it hard to believe that he would loop a bunch of random strangers into his plan and also no one ever came forward saying that they gave him a ride so after years of this strange mystery there was actually a big breakthrough in the john doe case that would at least go us some kind of answers investigators were able to trace the john doe's dna back multiple generations and finally confirm that they belong to a person named stephen edward gooch a man who had been missing since 1995. stephen had been last seen in washington state but his family had lost contact with him before he went missing sounds kind of familiar authorities still haven't pinpointed stephen's exact cause of death but at least his family got some closure thanks to you know dna evidence which is great but tragically larry's family wouldn't be so lucky to this day he's still missing without a trace his case remains an open investigation and authorities are still looking for any possible leads i've already done a lot of speculating with this particular story so if i had to do even more my hunch is that the fire probably erased any evidence of what happened to him but i could be wrong my heart goes out to larry um as well as anyone else who's ever lost a loved one in similar circumstances now search crews were at a loss pretty much every day in larry's case but not even the president of the united states himself could get to the bottom of this next story one of the oldest mysteries in glacier national park history on august 23rd 1924 bill and joe whitehead wrote a letter to their mother dora from glacier national park they signed the letter with one final reassuring line that said don't worry mother we won't go into any danger but that's the thing with the wilderness uh you you often don't know how dangerous a situation is until it's far too late joseph whitehead was 29 years old and worked as an engineer in chicago his little brother william was just 22 and was studying at mit are some smart brothers uh in the summer of 1924 the brothers spent over a week exploring glacier national park by car boat and horseback they slowly worked their way deeper and deeper into the park until they reached the granite park chalet high in the mountains you might remember that name from the beginning of the video now this had been the trip of a lifetime for these two young men who were pretty much you know in the primes of their lives i mean it was nothing but them and the great outdoors they planned on closing out this epic adventure with a final 20 mile hike down to lake mcdonald from there they would hop on a train and they would head back home the timeline on this plan would be very tight if they wanted to catch that train but again these were young men and so it's safe to say that they were probably feeling pretty confident one might even say they were a little bit too confident four days before the hike joseph wrote to his mother reassuring her he said things like we're enjoying ourselves very much and taking no chances of injuring ourselves he knew that his mother might still worry about him and his brother and so he even he even made that promise to her he said quote don't worry mother we won't go into any danger early in the morning on sunday august 24th the brothers left granite park and started down the trail towards lake mcdonald they hiked further and further towards the lake and as the day went on some some fellow hikers spotted the two brothers right around midday now during this encounter the brothers were still like 10 miles away from their final destination and as far as the other hikers were concerned the brothers looked completely normal both joseph and william looked like they had all the necessary gear for a technical hike like this and i've read some accounts that even mentioned that the brothers were seen smiling you know they were in good spirits this was after all the adventure of a lifetime and it seems like thus far it's been a really good time for them to be able to go back to the park it was it was living up to the hype at least until it wasn't even though when the brothers were spotted they were still on track to to reach their train they never showed up day turned into night and by the next morning there there still hadn't been any sign of them anywhere around lake mcdonald the rest of the week dragged on slowly until september 1st rolled around which was the day that the boys train was meant to arrive back in chicago and this part of the story is very hard to tell but as their mother and brother were still on track to reach their train they never showed up the next day the mother stood there on the train platform she she waited and waited but her boys never stepped off that train and it was at that moment when people finally realized that the white head brothers were missing what followed was the most intense search that glacier national park had ever seen uh in fact this was actually one of the earliest like high profile missing person cases in the history of the entire national park system rangers rangers rangers rangers rangers rangers rangers expert mountaineers and well-known indigenous guides spread out across the wilderness for weeks and as it turns out the white head family was actually a pretty wealthy and well-connected american family and that would become even more apparent when president calvin coolidge personally wired park officials and told them to use every possible resource to find the boys and to bring them home but when the full energy of the u.s government up to and including the president couldn't find the boys investigators started to consider some of the darker possibilities they wondered if the boys had possibly become victims of foul play while way out there in the middle of the wilderness their mother even started to become convinced of the theory that her boys had run into violent alcohol bootleggers you know who were apparently known to operate in and around the park you got to remember that 1924 was right in the middle of the prohibition era and and so you know many criminals were known for running full-scale operations smuggling booze especially near the canadian border you know where glacier national park is and so i can only imagine that they wouldn't be too excited if two young hikers accidentally stumbled upon their activities and of course i'd also guess that any potential smugglers would have wanted to keep a border town booze operation a secret by pretty much any means necessary but despite these personal theories from the boy's mother authorities never came to terms with the fact that the boys had run into violent alcohol bootleggers and any evidence that actually pointed to them being robbed or attacked by bootleggers on the trail and so the other main theory was that the boys had maybe fallen somewhere in the mountains they were after all undertaking a very strenuous 20 mile hike that day and they also had a train to catch and so there's a strong chance that they that they were maybe rushing or maybe they overworked themselves and we know that nature can be the most dangerous if you're either too tired or going to the hospital or something like that so i'm not sure if that's true but i'm sure that's too fast or not watching where you're going. I actually learned this lesson the hard way one time when I sprained my ankle on literally the last half mile of a 14 mile hike. Not quite as dramatic as what happened to these brothers, but you get what I'm saying. However, if the Whitehead brothers had fallen or suffered from exposure, then how come that search efforts so intense that the president was involved still couldn't find them? Which is a decent question, but you do have to remember that this was the 1920s after all. And of course, search and rescue teams didn't have all the tools and experience that we're so used to hearing about in, you know, the more modern mysteries that we've talked about on this channel. These guys obviously didn't have drones or infrared cameras. And so, you know, they just weren't able to cover as much ground or at least cover it as fast as search teams do nowadays. I can't say for sure, but I do wonder if the lack of technology at the time was a good thing. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't played a role in the in the real lack of any leads in this case i think it's reasonable to wonder if things would have been different if joseph and william had disappeared today the search pushed on for more than two years federal agents chased down all the leads they could find but all of them went nowhere their mother was relentless as well she wrote letter after letter to government officials demanding answers things like i want my two sons dead or alive or they belong to me i have a right to have them but the mountains of glacier national park clearly did not care what this grieving mother thought she deserved because to this day it has never given the whitehead brothers back as far as anyone knows their their secrets are still out there somewhere and their disappearance actually like changed glacier national park forever i'm not being dramatic there because from that point on search and rescue became a core mission of the park rangers weren't just guardians of nature anymore but instead they quickly became first responders to the very real dangers of the wilderness the dangers that the adventurous whitehead brothers presumably discovered in the most unsettling way possible now despite everything you just listened to not every wilderness tragedy leaves behind a missing person sometimes people do make it back and the real story becomes what everyone decides to do with them afterwards this woman is the most controversial climber in the history of mount everest and her name is sandy hill pitman a california girl turned new york socialite in 1996 sandy hoped to become the 34th woman ever to reach the summit of mount everest she had failed to reach the summit uh not once but twice before in her life and this time she was going to do to make it to the top well spoiler sandy did become the 34th woman to summit everest sure she made history but that's not what would ultimately define her story folks this is the story of a disaster mishaps bad decisions human error leaving people to die. When Sandy descended from the mountain, nobody cared that she had reached the summit. Instead, she found herself caught in the middle of a media firestorm, one that she herself had a hand in creating. Sandy Hill Pittman was made out to be the ultimate Everest villain. But that begs the question, did she deserve it? I'm going to tell you the story of Sandy Hill Pittman and leave it up to you to decide whether she's a villain, a victim, or maybe even a hero. This is going to be a bit of a controversial one. To be honest, I'm a little bit stressed out about it because I'm not an expert on this stuff, but I'm going to do my best. And so anyways, when all is said and done, I think that you're going to see what I have to say about it is pretty fair. That's my intention anyway. And so buckle up folks, let's travel back in time to the year 1996, which is the year I was born coincidentally. And we're not going to start our story on Mount Everest, which might sound weird, but rather we're going to start in a New York City nightclub called Nell's. Nell's was known to be this hotspot in New York for celebrities in the mid nineties. And on one particular night, there was this giant farewell party happening. And there were big names in attendance, by the way, like Calvin Klein and Bianca Jagger. All of these people were there to celebrate a soon to be climber of Mount Everest, who of course was Sandy Pittman. She was their friend and she was also the wife of MTV co-founder Robert Pittman. It was pretty easy to pick Sandy out in the crowd. I mean, for one thing, she was five foot 10, but more notably, she came to her own farewell party dressed fully in her climbing gear. Remember this is a nightclub in New York city, right? People are all dressed up, but no, she was wearing crampons and a snowsuit. She even brought her ice axe into this club. Let's just say that Sandy obviously knew how to attract attention and how to wow the camera and hearing all that stuff. I mean, it's pretty easy to kind of roll your eyes at it, right? But the truth is that Sandy was not naive and she actually had quite the climbing resume leading up to this 1996 Everest attempt. She had started climbing at only 13 years old. And over the years, she had reached the point of being one summit away from being only the second American woman in history to complete what is called the seven summits, which is some of the most important summits in the world. The summit is the highest mountain on every single continent. It's obviously a very impressive feat and Sandy was kind of, we'll say obsessed with knocking out this last summit. I mean, it was consuming her, right? It was even affecting her personal life. The only problem was that the last summit, Mount Everest, was the hardest of all of them. And remember, this was not her first attempt. She had tried twice before. She was 0 for 2 and she was determined to change that. Folks, her third time had to be the charm. And she did have a few things going for her this time around. By the year 1996, commercial expeditions up Everest were exploding because, you know, the path up the mountain had become more accessible to a wider range of climbers. There was tons of guide services, you know, Sherpas. It still cost over $120,000 in today's money to climb Everest, but that was obviously not an issue for Sandy. Sandy also chose to climb with Scott Fisher, who was this legendary guide known for his aggressive style, we'll call it, and his priority to get as many of his clients to the summit as possible. And this third time, Sandy would even give herself one more boost of urgency to fuel her fire. She would end up striking a deal with NBC to transmit messages to the internet so that she could basically live blog from the mountain. I don't know all the history of this, but from my point of view, this was a pretty unique thing. But it also meant that she had to haul a 20-pound satellite phone up the mountain. But her and her guide Scott, well, they thought it would be worth it. I mean, it would be really good for future business for Scott, and it would just be amazing and inspirational to show the world what it was like to summit the highest mountain. So there was a lot of pressure and literal weight on Sandy now as she and her expedition team began their ascent. Speaking of weight, I don't know if this is true, but legend also has it that Sandy chose to bring an espresso machine with her up the mountain. And look, I mean, I know a few outdoorsy folks who go to pretty extreme lengths for their coffee, but bringing a full espresso machine up Everest is probably a little bit overkill, if it's true. On May 10th, 1996, guide Scott Fisher's group, which of course included Sandy, woke up at Camp 4 on Mount Everest, ready to make that final push up to the summit. So far, things had been relatively usual, but there had been a few issues on the way up the mountain. Some of the preset ropes had become unfixed, which caused delays. Oh, and in the middle of the trek, Scott actually had to take a client all the way back down the mountain and then go all the way back up in order to meet the rest of his party. Oh, and that 20-pound satellite phone that I told you about earlier that the was no longer working at the altitude. But regardless of all those things going wrong, everyone was excited this morning. Especially Sandy, right? Because her dream of finishing the seven summits and, of course, summoning Mount Everest was literally one final push away. In total, over 30 climbers would attempt to summit Everest on May 10th, 1996 across three different climbing groups. And what you have to understand is that they all had a very tight window to do this a predicted storm and bad weather conditions would potentially start up right around 2 p.m. And tragically, as soon as they began their ascent on this day, panic pretty much immediately set in. At a few vital points along the final climb up, like the Hillary Step, for instance, have you heard of it? Fixed ropes had not been set yet again. This caused even more delays as Sherpas rushed, you know, to get the ropes ready. Some climbers even turned back at this point because they were stressed out. And so, as soon as they began their ascent on this day, they were stressed about missing their turnaround time, but not Sandy Pittman. And also, crucially, not the guides themselves who pushed on with a lot of their clients. And you have to remember, the eyes of the world were on this climb. The guides all felt this tremendous pressure. I mean, you can kind of understand this, right? This pressure to deliver these really high-paying, even high-profile clients like Sandy to the summit. But around this point, Sandy was starting to struggle. She had never even made it past Camp 4. And either of her first two attempts. And now, she was literally right below the summit of Everest. And despite struggling, there was no way that she was going to turn back now, right? She was being incredibly stubborn, maybe even a little bit reckless. But you can also kind of understand, you know, she came all this way. This is her dream. She's literally almost there, right? Her stubbornness ultimately meant that a Sherpa would need to short rope the exhausted Sandy up the mountain, which basically means that a Sherpa tethered themselves to the top of the mountain and kind of supported her as she climbed. To go from dragging her heavy satellite phone up the mountain now to this probably wasn't very fun for that particular Sherpa. Eventually, the turnaround time, you know, the time that they were supposed to quit and head back down the mountain because it was getting too late, well, that time eventually passed. But most of the climbers were still on their way up at this point, not going down. And then, finally, at 2.30 p.m., Sandy and a few others reached the summit of Mount Everest. Sandy started high-fiving everyone and cheering, but what she didn't understand was that this was not the time to celebrate. And just as Sandy and the rest of the climbers looked down the mountain at the path leading all the way back down to Camp 4, Mother Nature decided to unleash on them. And by that, I mean, well, pretty much worst-case scenario happened. A nasty blizzard started up. Snow and wind are whipping in everyone's faces, you know, making them, more and more tired one by one. Scott Fisher, you know, the legendary Everest guide, was now experiencing the symptoms of severe altitude sickness, and it got so bad for him that he literally couldn't go on any further. And this was also the case for a few other climbers. The guides are panicking. They're kind of scrambling to figure out their roles, who's in charge, and just scrambling to get back down the mountain. Sandy herself was also panicking at this time. She was stumbling and falling. She was tanking. She was trying to get back down the mountain, but she couldn't. She was dangling herself in her ropes, holding her ice axe in the wrong hand. Things got so bad for Sandy that she needed to ask for a literal shot of adrenaline in order to help keep her going. And folks, things did not get better. The blizzard got even worse. And at the same time, so did Sandy's condition, even after taking this adrenaline shot. One guide who was named Neil Bidelman would even clip himself to Sandy. And he like tried to slide down the fixed ropes with her attached to him. And he was like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. But this didn't really work. A couple other climbers tried the same thing. Oh, and I haven't even mentioned yet. It was now completely dark outside. It was pitch black. And with over 50 mile per hour gusts of wind, 50 miles per hour, they couldn't even tell which way was up or which way was down. And this left them with no choice but to just sit there and try to wait out the storm. A smaller group of climbers, including Sandy and Neil, kind of huddled together in the up at extreme altitude and they're even of their oxygen reserves at this point i mean they were basically in this big dog pile kind of just like beating each other and screaming in each other's ears to try to keep themselves from falling asleep because we all know if someone fell asleep they weren't ever going to wake up again when the blizzard finally stopped around midnight a few of these climbers were able to make their way from this dog pile back down to camp four but this did not include sandy pitman herself and a couple of others were just too weak to go on and so they just kind of accepted that they were just going to lay there and die essentially um and they laid there for over three hours without any help i can't even imagine this dude this is why i'll never climb everest um i'm also not tough enough or skilled enough but regardless can you imagine this you're just laying there waiting to you're just laying there waiting to die kind of rubbing each other to try to like keep warm but it's not working i mean just as sandy was pretty much ready to give up a guide who had rushed back to camp four earlier this guide was named anatoly bokriev well he would actually stumble upon sandy after giving her some oxygen and attempting to kind of coax her up to her feet so that she could walk down the mountain under her own power anatoly would eventually just resort to carrying or more realistically dragging sandy all the way back down to camp four and by the way he had done this with some other climbers as well but sandy would be his final rescue that night at this point he had just run out of energy to search for anyone else and carrying sandy down the mountain or dragging her basically took whatever energy that he had left out of him the next morning numbers started to come in and of course i'm talking about a death toll here in total eight people died on anatoly bokriev's side of the mountain and that's what i'm talking about in this episode in fact one climber died only five yards away from where anatoly bokriev had rescued sandy but ultimately yeah she was rescued and though she had been one of the lucky survivors the storm did not end for sandy when she left mount everest in fact it was pretty much only the beginning this is where things get really controversial folks and it started with this post-summit interview that sandy did with mbc in order to get sandy out of camp four and the storm didn't end for sandy when she left mount everest in fact it was pretty much only the beginning this is where things get really controversial folks and it started with this post-summit interview that sandy did with mbc from the base camp of mount everest where she referred to the trek as the nbc everest assault expedition and this rubbed some people the wrong way to put it mildly i mean sandy after all was the one who had invited nbc to be a part of this expedition not scott fisher their leader and guide who unfortunately passed away on the mountain i mean there was other people involved it wasn't like this entire expedition just revolved around sandy and nbc and so you can kind of understand why people were upset about that and when sandy returned to new york um things didn't really get any better she could not stay out of the public eye this was a massive story she kind of tried to stay relatively quiet at first and kind of handle damage control from the media as best she could and mourn the loss of scott fisher and the others who had died but it didn't take long before the press began to tell their story of her client if that makes sense there's a pretty infamous article in vanity fair which was written only three months after this disaster which is a perfect example of what i'm talking about here this article ripped into sandy frankly while the article is definitely a little biased at times it was just about the worst possible look for sandy i mean you can even go read it yourself but basically there are a few moments in the aftermath of all this where sandy really did not do herself any favors first of all she failed to recognize the two men who had saved her life neil and anatoly while she was at this cocktail party that she was throwing to honor scott fisher and that didn't sit well with a lot of people um and then she also publicly commented that the guides that were there were not heroes that night but instead were just you know being paid to do their jobs which is true but like i mean you could probably see why that didn't really come across very well one of the climbers from that 1996 expedition who is named john krakauer would go on to publish a book in the following year called into thin air again i'm sure a lot of you have read this book or at the very least heard of it this book did not really help sandy's reputation either basically john introduced a brand new debate which essentially was what are you doing on this mountain if you can't actually get yourself down without relying on other people now to be fair that's not exactly what says these are my words but this of course did point right at sandy and kind of insinuated that the extra help that she needed may have contributed to some of the chaos on the mountain that day the combination of that very famous book and this vanity fair article painted sandy as this wealthy out-of-touch american woman whose lack of preparedness for everest and all the luxury items that she brought with her were at least partially responsible or at least reasons for why so many climbers died that night however it is worth mentioning that it wasn't all bad for sandy she did have some supporters that came to her side several experienced climbers actually went on to defend her and pointed to all of the other issues that happened during the climb and also the decisions made by the guides that kind of put them in this dangerous spot anatoly bokriev once again the guide who saved sandy's life that night well he said that sandy showed grit in her survival effort and yet despite some of her defenders it really wasn't enough enough to stop this onslaught of hatred and judgment that was slung at sandy and to this day there are still people arguing about whether sandy should have been climbing mount everest in the first place now i'm going to give my opinion on this a little bit and frankly it doesn't really mean much because i'm not an everest climber um i wasn't there and so don't read into this too much but since i'm telling this story um i don't really think that it's fair to just blame sandy for everything certainly in in some ways it's fair to just blame sandy for everything certainly in in i kind of think her role in the overall disaster was just not as significant as some people have said claims of her being an inexperienced naive climber are just not really true again she hadn't done everest before but she did have a lot of experience and i also think it's really important to note that for better or for worse that's a whole nother debate sandy was allowed to do what she did at the time i mean she was encouraged to pay her way to the summit of everest just like lots of other people hell scott fisher her guide even approved of sandy's added gear you know that's the satellite phone and stuff in order to promote his expedition with nbc to me the guides who pushed past the turnaround time all of the unfixed ropes causing delays and the chaotic game plan during the blizzard all those factors contributed far more to the disaster than any one person could have you know let alone sandy but of course that's not to say that sandy's climb wasn't problematic either truthfully she probably wasn't ready to summit everest that day she probably did make a lot of big mistakes but she also wasn't the only person who wasn't ready to summit everest that day she wasn't the only person to make mistakes and she wasn't even the first person to be short-roped by a sherpa oh and she also wasn't the first person to need a shot of adrenaline that day either in order to stay conscious and not die however she may have been the first person to bring an espresso machine up with her allegedly but who knows at the end of the day sandy hill pittman wanted to shed a positive light on mount everest she did make four shots of adrenaline every single time and she was lucky enough to make it to summit everest she was lucky enough to get a shot of adrenaline every single time and she was lucky enough to make it to summit everest she was lucky enough to make it to summit everest she was lucky enough to make it to kids to kids to kids and inspiring them to chase their dreams and inspiring them to chase their dreams and inspiring them to chase their dreams which is honorable and i'm sure that her which is honorable and i'm sure that her which is honorable and i'm sure that her climb did inspire some of them but much climb did inspire some of them but much climb did inspire some of them but much more than that it proved to be the best more than that it proved to be the best more than that it proved to be the best possible warning for future generations possible warning for future generations possible warning for future generations of climbers to not take mount everest of climbers to not take mount everest of climbers to not take mount everest lightly like this ever again but again lightly like this ever again but again lightly like this ever again but again that's just me take my opinion with a that's just me take my opinion with a that's just me take my opinion with a grain of salt a massive grain of salt grain of salt a massive grain of salt grain of salt a massive grain of salt here oh and speaking of opinions i'm here oh and speaking of opinions i'm here oh and speaking of opinions i'm really curious what you guys think i really curious what you guys think i really curious what you guys think i always appreciate your comments and so always appreciate your comments and so always appreciate your comments and so let me know um am i am i going too easy let me know um am i am i going too easy let me know um am i am i going too easy on sandy here is there something that i on sandy here is there something that i on sandy here is there something that i left out definitely a possibility i want left out definitely a possibility i want left out definitely a possibility i want to hear all your thoughts you guys to hear all your thoughts you guys to hear all your thoughts you guys always have the most insightful things always have the most insightful things always have the most insightful things to say to say to say just make it respectful please because just make it respectful please because just make it respectful please because honestly this is what this is a story honestly this is what this is a story honestly this is what this is a story that people that people that people have been arguing over for years and have been arguing over for years and have been arguing over for years and will continue to argue over will continue to argue over will continue to argue over for years to come even though it's been for years to come even though it's been for years to come even though it's been almost almost 30 years since this happened.