Crews comb peak for missing hiker

ALPINE — Crews will continue searching today for a missing man who slipped and fell while hiking Lone Peak Sunday night.

Nathan Wallace, 20, Salt Lake City, has been missing since about 11 p.m. Sunday when he stepped on a moss-covered granite slab, slipped and crashed into a wall, then slid down the mountain out of sight, said Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Harold Curtis. He hasn't been seen since.

Family and friends are holding out hope the young man is still alive.

"If anyone could survive this, he could," said his mother, Rebecca Wallace.

She arrived Monday at the Dry Creek Trail Head command post with her hiking gear, ready to look for her son.

However, conditions were so treacherous that she remained at the base, waiting for information from search-and-rescue crews.

Wallace and his friend, Eric Monfrooy, 21, also of Salt Lake City, were both experienced hikers, although the two had never climbed this mountain before.

The two friends started their hike at about 9 a.m. Sunday, each lugging 30 pounds of hiking equipment up the mountain.

After hiking for nearly five hours, Monfrooy said they were too tired to start the rock climb so they stashed their packs and planned to return another day.

On their way down the mountain, it got darker sooner than they expected, and they became lost. Then Wallace slipped and disappeared into the darkness.

Monfrooy said he yelled for 20 minutes for his friend, then curled up and slept on a rock. "It was hell," Monfrooy said of the steep area and the muddy conditions.

Monday morning about 6 a.m. he was able to make a one-minute phone call to police before his cell phone died.

About four hours later, rescue crews pulled Monfrooy off the mountain with a helicopter.

After his rescue, Monfrooy, with cuts on his dirt-covered legs and feet, explained what happened the night before, then went up in the Department of Public Safety helicopter to try and locate his missing friend.

Utah County searchers combed the granite faces and chest-high foliage all day Monday. Constant trickles of water created very slippery surfaces and made searching dangerous.

"It's beautiful country from the air," said Marc Lloyd, who works with Utah County's search-and-rescue team. Lloyd said he and the others waded through marshy, swampy conditions on a 70-degree slope looking for any physical clues or indications of sliding.

"It's very slow going — about 10 feet a minute," Lloyd said. "You can't see where you're putting your feet."

---

E-mail: sisraelsen@desnews.com