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A hiker in northern Washington’s North Cascades National Park was rescued a month after he went missing, authorities have revealed, and according to one rescuer, it was just in time.
Robert Schock, 39, was last seen by other hikers in an area of the park on July 31 and did not have any overnight gear with him, the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement to CNN. He was rescued and taken to a hospital on August 30, authorities said at the weekend.
“When our crew found Robert, he was able to communicate to them that he had been immobile, stuck in that exact spot for approximately two weeks,” wrote Jeff Kish, executive director of the non-profit Pacific Northwest Trail Association, in a Facebook post about the rescue late on Wednesday.
Search took nearly a month
On August 3, park officials notified deputies of an abandoned vehicle at the Hannegan Pass trailhead. They also reported finding a dog they said belongs to Schock, 8 miles away on a trail near the Chilliwack River, according to the statement.
Deputies who responded to the area over the following few days checked the vehicle and found the windows rolled down and Schock’s wallet on the dashboard, the sheriff’s office said.
Park rangers searched the remote area several times by ground on August 7 and joined deputies in a helicopter search of the area, but found no clues leading to Schock’s whereabouts.
The US Border Patrol’s air search on August 16 of Chilliwack Basin and ground search of the area where the dog was found also yielded no clues, authorities said.
“On August 30, WCSO deputies were notified by National Parks Service rangers that Schock was located in the Chilliwack Basin, alive and well,” the sheriff’s office said in the statement.
Hiker alive but ‘not well’
Kish disagreed with the official statement of Schock’s condition when his Pacific Northwest Trail Association team found him, he wrote on Facebook.
“Robert was found alive, but not well,” Kish wrote.
“It is the belief of those who came to be involved in the rescue that Robert may have only had another day left in him before the outcome of his discovery would have been much more tragic.”
The non-profit’s crew had been working on restoring a trail destroyed by fires in 2022 the day they found Schock, according to Kish. They were heading back to camp after a long day when they heard a “barely discernible” sound near the Chilliwack River as they crossed it, he said.
“It was not readily apparent that they had heard a person, but their intuition was to take the time to investigate, just in case,” Kish wrote.
The team heard Schock yelling for help, according to CNN affiliate KIRO.
The crew found Schock about 800 metres off the trail along the river’s bank, “laid out and exposed to the elements,” according to Kish, who added: “His situation was dire.”
“This is what heroes look like,” Kish wrote.
The team provided critical aid to Schock for several hours before rescue teams arrived to take him to a hospital, according to Kish.
CNN has contacted the National Park Service for additional information.
