Shaun Mackelprang made it to the top of Wyoming’s highest mountain. Coming back down is where everything fell apart.
The 55-year-old Missouri deputy attorney general was found alive Wednesday morning near Scott Lake in the Wind River Range, six days after he set out alone for the 13,804-foot summit of Gannett Peak. Rescuers reached him around 9:45 a.m. Mountain time. He was dehydrated and disoriented when they got to him, and crews prepared to fly him out by helicopter to a medical facility.
He was weak but alert, the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office said. The full extent of any injuries was not known at the time.
A signature at the summit cracked the search wide open
There is a register at the top of Gannett Peak, a book climbers sign to mark that they made it. Mackelprang signed it. That single entry turned out to be one of the most useful clues rescuers had.
“We know he summited on Friday because he signed the book,” his brother Romel Mackelprang told Cowboy State Daily shortly after the family got word he was found. Another hiker who reached the summit later photographed the register page, confirming Mackelprang had made it to the top before something went wrong on the way down.
That changed the math for searchers. Once they knew he had reached the summit and knew where his tent was, they could concentrate on the terrain between those two points instead of scanning an entire mountain range. It shrank the search area dramatically.
Five days went by before he was reported missing
Mackelprang left the Green River Lakes Trailhead on August 20, planning to reach Gannett Peak by way of Tourist Creek. He was traveling solo. His rental car was still parked there when searchers went looking.
The Sublette County Sheriff’s Office did not put out a public missing person report until Tuesday, August 25. That is a five-day gap between when he walked into the mountains and when the alarm went up. A long backcountry trek like this one can run several days by design, so a late return does not always trigger an immediate call. His sister Sheila made the family’s first calls to Wyoming officials that Sunday, Romel said. The sheriff’s office said the search began after he was reported missing and his vehicle was found at the trailhead.
Authorities have not said whether he was carrying a satellite communicator, a personal locator beacon, or any other device that could have sent his position out. In that stretch of Wyoming, there is no cell signal to fall back on.
Drones and a helicopter covered ground that boots couldn’t
The search leaned hard on machines. Ground teams worked the trails, the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office Drone Team scanned from above, and Tip Top Search and Rescue put a helicopter in the air. Together they combed a remote backcountry stitched with glaciers and lakes in the northern Wind River Range.
Crews searched Tuesday until worsening winds forced them to stop, Romel said. They came back early Wednesday and found him near a lake, away from the one where his tent had been set up.
Scott Lake, where he was found, cannot be reached by vehicle. That is why a helicopter airlift was the only fast way to get him to a hospital.
Weak but alert after six days in the mountains
Six days is a long time to survive alone at high altitude with no way to call out. Weather made it worse. Romel said there had been bad conditions in the mountains during that window, including thunderstorms.
By the time rescuers reached him, he needed fluids right away. Searchers started an IV before moving him, Romel said. The sheriff’s office described him as weak but alert. He was taken to the hospital after the extraction.
His sister Sheila waited near the helicopter landing area for him to arrive and be moved for treatment. Romel put his read on what went wrong plainly. “I think what happened is he … clearly got disoriented coming back down,” he said.
He’s climbing the highest point in every state
Gannett Peak was not a random pick. Mackelprang has been working his way through the highest points in all 50 states, and Wyoming’s is one of the tougher ones on that list.
The mountain stands on the crest of the Continental Divide in one of the most remote parts of the state. Green River Lakes, the jumping-off point, sits around 8,000 feet, with Squaretop Mountain looming over the water. From there it is a grind of thousands of feet up rugged, glacier-covered terrain to the summit at 13,804 feet, per U.S. Geological Survey figures. It is the kind of climb people train for, and one where a wrong turn on the descent can cost you.
His brother has a Christmas gift and a lecture ready
Romel Mackelprang, 70, of Salt Lake City, did not hide the mix of relief and frustration when he got the call. He is done with the solo hikes.
“I’m going to kick him in the butt when I get back with him,” Romel said. “I’m going to tell him you can’t hike these damn things anymore alone.” He already knows what his brother is getting for the holidays. A Garmin GPS is on the way for Christmas.
He had nothing but praise for the people who found his brother. “They walk on water, as far as I’m concerned,” Romel said of the rescuers and volunteers. “If ever you wonder about the goodness of people, you don’t have to go beyond the people up there in your community because they have saved my brother’s life.”
The Missouri AG’s office tracked it from home
He has spent nearly three decades at the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, 28 years by his own LinkedIn record, working in the Criminal Division out of Jefferson City.
His office stayed in close contact with Wyoming officials the entire time. Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway spoke after he was located. “We are thrilled to hear that Deputy Attorney General Shaun Mackelprang has been located,” she said in a statement posted to her official accounts. “Our office is beyond grateful for everyone’s prayers and the steadfast work of the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office and drone team, Tip Top Search and Rescue’s volunteers and helicopter crew, and Wyoming State leaders.”
The whole thing came down to a mix of old-fashioned legwork and newer tools working together across state lines. A signed register put searchers on the right slope. A drone team and a helicopter closed the distance a foot search could not. And a solo climber who reached one of the hardest state high points in the lower 48 got a second chance to sign the next book with company.
The Sublette County Sheriff’s Office summed up the outcome its own way. “This successful outcome is the result of the tremendous effort and coordination of Tip Top Search and Rescue volunteers, Sublette County Sheriff’s Office personnel and the SCSO Drone Team, along with the support of everyone who provided information or assistance throughout the search,” the office said in a statement.
