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BREAKING: Silverthorne man reported missing from Missouri Mountain

Kevin Fixler Summit Daily

A Summit County man hiking one of the state’s 14,000-foot mountains in a nearby northwestern county was reported missing early Sunday morning when he failed to make it home the day before.

Sheui Pako, 36, of Silverthorne, summited Missouri Mountain in the Collegiate Peaks near the town of Buena Vista at about noon on Saturday, according to his wife Valerie Kato who reported him missing, and he was expected back later that afternoon. Kato called the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office at about 2 a.m. after her husband ultimately didn’t return.

Sheriff’s deputies immediately responded to the Missouri Gulch trailhead of the 14,067-foot peak in the popular Sawatch Range and discovered Pako’s car. That set off an extensive air and ground search at first light on Sunday morning that included three search and rescue groups totaling 45 ground crew, and three helicopters between Flight For Life and the Air National Guard High Altitude Training Center based in Eagle County. Five members of the Summit County Rescue Group and the Flight For Life team from St. Anthony Summit Medical Center in Frisco were involved in the Sunday operation that went late into the evening.

The search effort was suspended at nightfall Sunday and not resumed Monday based on the Chaffee County north rescue group’s call because of inclement weather and concerns over avalanche risk on the onerous terrain. The sheriff’s office is requesting that civilian volunteers not respond to the peak to help with the search due to significant danger from the current low-visibility conditions.

The present weather is expected to clear by Monday night, and Chaffee County Sheriff John Spezze anticipates restarting the search with a full set of resources early Tuesday morning.

This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.


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