Search efforts continue for missing Colorado hiker, authorities urge caution in search area
Authorities say the search for missing Colorado hiker Kaden Sites will continue as the efforts to find him near one week. According to the Chaffee County Sheriff's Office, Sites, 27, from Salida, was reported as missing last Wednesday after he failed to return from a hunting trip.
Sites went turkey hunting on Mount Shavano and failed to show up for a doctor's appointment on Wednesday afternoon, according to the Chaffee County Sheriff's Office. Family members found Sites' pickup truck at the Blanks Cabin Trailhead parking lot. His cell phone was inside the truck, and the device's battery was dead.
Family members called the sheriff's office at 7 p.m. on April 15 to report that Sites was missing.
The Chaffee County Sheriff's Office posted on Facebook that plans are in place to continue searching for Sites but that the current response will decrease as volunteers need time to rest after putting so much strain on their bodies. Authorities said more than 3,000 linear miles have been part of the search so far.
The sheriff's office said that volunteer searches are welcome; however, the search area is extremely dangerous for those not experienced in the backcountry. Authorities recommend wearing very bright clothing, don't go out alone, tell others where you plan to hike, bring plenty of food and water, prepare for Colorado weather to change, make sure you are equipped with tracking equipment and a cell phone.
The Chaffee County Sheriff's Office also posted that searchers do not leave anything in the forest and that any items of interest are those depicted in the AI-generated photo of Sites that was created to show what he is believed to have been wearing when he went hunting. The AI photo shows him wearing a grey hoodie, khaki pants, with a camouflage chest pouch, and carrying a shotgun.
Anyone who locates any items believed to belong to Sites is asked to please leave the items untouched and call Chaffee County Dispatch at 719-539-2596.
The search and rescue crews include several agencies from across the state:
- Chaffee County Sheriff's Office
- Chaffee County Office of Emergency Management
- Chaffee County Search and Rescue (North and South)
- Colorado Search and Rescue
- Colorado Department of Corrections
- Colorado Parks and Wildlife
- Mesa County Search and Rescue
- Park County Search and Rescue
- Western Mountain Rescue (Gunnison County)
- Pueblo Search and Rescue
- Teller County Search and Rescue
- Lake County Search and Rescue
- Custer County Search and Rescue
- Summit County Search and Rescue
- Boulder Emergency Squad
They have released a joint statement in the search for Sites: "Thank you for your interest in helping with the search for Kaden Sites. We appreciate your willingness to help. We are not actively preventing anyone from entering the search area. If you do enter the search area, we are encouraging and requesting the following. Private drone use is prohibited. Please park in the open fields near the Blanks Cabin Trailhead so that trailhead access is open for responders. Please travel with your ten essentials and be prepared to travel in uneven, varied, and wet terrain. Ensure to wear high visibility clothing and to work, at minimum, in pairs. There is a possibility we are looking for an immobile subject. Searching for immobile subjects involves moving slowly and stopping to look around you (including behind, below and above). If you find our subject and/or a firearm, please call 719-539-2596 (Non-Emergency Dispatch). Search planning for this incident indicates likely downhill travel. As such, we are asking searchers to focus East and South East of the Colorado Trail from the Blanks Cabin TH. Please respect private property boundaries."
