Boots on the Boulder: Who Walked Them There in Silence?

Boots on the Boulder: Who Walked Them There in Silence?

A pair of hiking boots, perfectly aligned, laces tucked inside and pointing north, sat on a granite boulder the size of a car with no tracks leading to or away from them-found in a clean circle of bare rock surrounded by fresh snow at 9,200 feet. How did those boots get there when the man who owned them had been missing for 31 hours?

In this episode, we walk through the search-and-rescue operation on the Capstone trail that recovered a hiker alive yet left rescuers baffled by a single unresolved piece of physical evidence: who carried the boots? You’ll hear the timeline from the last logbook entry to the dog team’s direct alert and the question that still haunts the report.

Person: Chad Lane
Date: March 9, 2023
Location: Capstone trail, elevation 9,200 feet
Status: Recovered alive
Author: Crystal Erickson (Harlow County Search and Rescue report)

- Last logbook entry written at 05:30 on March 8 with seven words: "Zero five thirty. Clear. Temp approx eighteen Fahrenheit. Going up."
- Boots found on top of a granite boulder roughly the size of a car, fifteen feet off the trail.
- No tracks led up to the boulder and no tracks led away; snow around the boulder was unbroken in every direction.
- Dog Tuck tracked from the tent northeast about a quarter mile and then sat at the granite dome where the boots were located, showing no scent trail continuing north or south.
- Crystal Erickson wrote then crossed out "Who carried the boots" in the field marked "Unresolved Physical Evidence" on the March 29 report.

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