http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-missing-hiker-20161021-snap-story.html

Story concerns an overdue hiker in the Kings Canyon area. I have not seen any kind of follow-up. The story mentions a transmission from his satellite device - (Spot or similar?) but no mention of a distress call.

Any later information?

I haven't heard anything about that one.

Thanks for digging up that article. I dare say the search is effectively concluded. Some day in the future, somebody will run across some evidence and the event will perhaps be closed.

The search is not necessarily concluded. What sometimes happens is that a training exercise will be run in the area of a previously unsuccessful search. It would likely happen next summer after the snow melts. This provides good training for all concerned.

The search managers get a chance to evaluate what was done in the previous search together with whatever clues were developed. Particularly in a case like this when the search was terminated by the first snows of winter, there are probably still a few areas that were not adequately searched, and are worth some further looking next summer. So the search managers get to plan and manage a new search. The ground pounders get a chance to participate in an actual search for an actual missing person, where there are probably still some clues out there that have not been found. Cadaver dogs get to get in some good practice. These kinds of missions are also a good way to break in rookies on search teams, and evaluate their performance.

Of course this would obviously be a recovery mission, but if successful everyone gets the satisfaction of providing closure to the family. Because it isn't an emergent situation, risks to searchers can be minimized, and it can be planned in such a way to keep costs minimal for the responsible agencies. As I noted above, good training for all concerned.

I think we are saying the same thing, basically. Essentially there does come a point where the search is effectively concluded. I have had too much experience with these kinds of events and to this day the books are still open on some of them.

Most poignant to me is the still unresolved disappearance of Paul Fugate, an NPS Naturalist at Chiricahua National Monument, AZ, who went out to check the nature trail on a slow Sunday in January 1980, and hasn't been seen since. We mounted an intensive operation,, air and ground that lasted more than two weeks in the intensive phase, but that then tapered off, although not quite concluded for several months. In the tapering phase, we conducted searches of nearby mine shafts and adits, acquiring some very useful and rigorous training and experience. To this day, nothing has been found of any substance and contending theories abound

I had worked with Paul from time to time, the last occasion being about two weeks before his disappearance, and we had many mutual friends and colleagues.

Of course, many of these cases are eventually resolved. There was the abrupt disappearance of a backcountry ranger in Sequoia-Kings NP some fifteen (?) years ago. His remains were eventually found after roughly three years.