Font ResizeSILVER CITY - A father and son from El Paso who left for a five-day backpacking trip at the Gila Cliff Dwellings on the day after Christmas have not returned and no one has seen them since.
A search was launched for the 55-year-old man and his 15-year-old son - who is said to be wearing sneakers - on Sunday, after the man's ex-wife called to report that they hadn't returned, said Marc Levesque, incident commander with New Mexico State Police Search and Rescue.
The pair arrived at the Cliff Dwellings on Dec. 26, Levesque said, spent the night in their vehicle, then left on the morning of the 27th for a five-day, 20- to 25-mile backpacking trip.
"A volunteer from the Cliff Dwellings did speak with them on Monday a.m. briefly, just to exchange pleasantries the morning they left," Levesque said, but other than that, no one has heard from them since.
The pair was supposed to return to El Paso Friday night or sometime Saturday, and when they didn't show up, the man's ex-wife reported them missing.
"We have two major problems," Levesque said. "They got caught out in that storm that came through and they were not prepared for it. And, they did not leave any itinerary with anybody."
The pair had a two-man tent, sleeping bags, ground pads, and enough food for five days, but they did not have heavy winter clothing or a GPS unit, and the lack of itinerary is hampering search efforts.
"It's a very large area we are trying to cover," Levesque said. "We have six ground
So far, the search teams have found no evidence of the hikers at all.
The area received 12 to 18 inches of snow in Thursday's blizzard, and temperatures have been below zero for the past three nights - as much as 15 below on Saturday and eight degrees below zero on Sunday.
"We're hoping that they are holed up somewhere and that they have built a fire, and are in their tent and sleeping bag," Levesque said. "They could have lost the trail because of the snow."
Four of the search teams spent Monday night in the field, and would pick up the search again at first light today.
"We'll have teams pushing out from incident base on four different trails and continue searching," he said. "We figure they have to be within a 12-mile radius of incident base. We continue to be plagued by the fact that they did not leave an itinerary, so we are making some best guesses as to where they might be."
A Blackhawk helicopter from the National Guard will join the search today as well, Levesque said.
The search area lies in a wilderness area, where no motorized vehicles are allowed, and normally a helicopter wouldn't be able to fly below 2,000 feet above ground level, but because the conditions are so dire, they could get permission to fly below that.
Christine Steele can be reached at (575) 538-5893, ext. 5802.
