Runner vanishes on 28-mile trek through national park. Two weeks later, clues elusive

Authorities are winding down search efforts for clues about what might have happened to a trail runner who vanished on a 28-mile trek through Rocky Mountain National Park at the end of September.

It’s been 13 days since Chad Pallansch, a 49-year-old from Fort Collins, Colorado, was reported overdue on Sept. 28 from the “expansive” route across the park’s challenging landscapes, National Park Service officials said in an Oct. 10 news release.

Search teams on the ground and in the air covered multiple areas of the park, including around Black Lake, Lake Powell, Stone Man Pass, Chiefs Head Peak, McHenry’s Peak, Mount Alice and the surrounding ridgeline, officials said in the release.

Officials also said they closed those areas of the park over the weekend so dog teams could search without additional scent distractions. Still, search teams didn’t uncover any further clues.

Though officials are suspending those broad search efforts, Pallansch is still classified as a missing person, and search and rescue teams will keep reviewing aerial photographs and drone footage, the release said.

Rangers will also keep patrolling the search area when weather and landscape conditions allow, and “further actions may be considered,” officials said.

Pallansch had planned to travel established trails, off trails “through steep talus slopes” — similar to more commonly known scree slopes — and ultimately across the Continental Divide, a majestic mountainous divide that separates watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean and river systems that drain into the Atlantic Ocean, McClatchy News previously reported.

He was last heard from around noon on Wednesday, Sept. 27, when someone received a text that said he was almost to the summit of Mount Alice and about 7 miles from the Bear Lake area, officials said.

He had started from the East Inlet Trailhead near Grand Lake earlier that day, officials said. His car was found parked at the North Inlet Trailhead on the west side of the park when he was reported overdue the next day.

His potential travel areas included most of the search areas, including Lake Verna, Mount Alice, Chiefs Head Peak, Black Lake, Mills Lake and Flattop Mountain.

While he hadn’t tried this specific route before, Pallansch was a seasoned trail runner who had run plenty of routes through the Rocky Mountain National Park, including Longs Peak — the tallest peak inside the park — more than 30 times, officials said.

Pallansch is about 5 feet, 7 inches tall and 155 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes, officials said. He’s described as “a fit runner with both trail running and marathon experience,” and while he had a personal navigation device with him, it wasn’t “designed for emergency assistance,” officials said. He was wearing a black ultralight jacket, black running shorts or leggings and a gray fanny pack, officials said.

Anyone who was in the search areas on Sept. 27 or who might know or have seen Pallansch should contact the National Park Service Investigative Services Bureau Tip Line at 888-653-0009 or by emailing nps_isb@nps.gov.

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