MILLCREEK — A California teenager who went missing while hiking in Millcreek Canyon has been found alive, something search and rescue crews admit they didn’t think would happen.
“I gotta be honest with you, I wasn’t feeling too confident that we were going to find him alive, especially after we found the things that we did. Not many people would have survived that. Not many people would have survived the night with what he had. So he’s a very healthy, tough individual,” said Rick Vollmer, a member of the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Team who was one of the first to find the 17-year-old boy on Friday.
Nicholas, whose last name was not immediately released, had been missing since he went hiking by himself in Millcreek Canyon on Thursday. By the time he was found — nearly 30 hours after he is believed to have started hiking — he was showing signs of hypothermia. Rescuers say he was hiking in the snow with no boots and no jacket.
“He’s extremely lucky. I mean, you’ve got an individual who went hiking yesterday with no food, no water, no backpack, a cellphone wasn’t turned on, no way to make a fire. And he survived the night. Now, how he did that, he’ll have to tell us later. But God’s on his side today,” said Search and Rescue commander Wayne Bassham.
The teen’s adventure began about 9:30 a.m. Thursday when an Uber dropped off Nicholas in Millcreek Canyon. Nicholas, who is from Fresno, California, was in town visiting friends but decided to go on a hike by himself, according to Unified police.
Nicholas was reported missing Thursday night. By then, it was too late for ground crews, so searchers began looking for Nicholas at daybreak on Friday.
Originally, they believed that the ride service company dropped Nicholas off at the mouth of Millcreek Canyon, Bassham said. But Unified police detectives tracked down the driver and learned he was actually dropped off about 8 miles up the canyon, which changed the entire dynamic of the search, he said.
Several teams of searchers responded to Millcreek Canyon, plus a Department of Public Safety helicopter. Crews from Summit County were also preparing to deploy when Nicholas was found.
Near the top of the canyon, searchers found evidence of someone “post-holing,” or someone moving through waist-deep snow without skis or snowshoes, Vollmer said.
As crews were searching for him, a possible sighting was reported by two backcountry skiers.
Searchers then continued following the holes in the snow, and found a boot and a glove in one hole, Vollmer said. As they continued to follow the tracks, they found a snow cave at the base in a tree well that had Nicholas’ backpack and a pair of Levis. About 75-feet from there, the other boot was found.
At that point, Vollmer admitted he didn’t think the outcome would be good.
But about a quarter-mile later, crews found Nicholas, who they described as amazingly upbeat despite hiking in the snow with no shoes. Bassham called it an early sign of hypothermia, a person shedding clothing because their mind is telling them they are warm.
Nicholas was found about 6 miles from where the Uber had dropped him off, in an open field off of the Red Pine Trail and past Dog Lake.
A Department of Public Safety helicopter picked him up and flew him out of the canyon to a parking lot at the mouth of the canyon where he was transferred to a medical helicopter and flown to a local hospital to be treated for possible frostbite, according to Unified police. Although his bare feet appeared to be in bad shape, he was able to walk out of the helicopter on his own power.
Vollmer said it was a good ending for an incident that could have turned out very differently.
“The guy made it and I’m very impressed with him.”
Contributing: Paul Nelson