Father’s Eerie Last Message to Wife Revealed Before Mountain Tragedy

A Minnesota hiker was found deceased in Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains nearly a month after he sent a final text message to his wife and was not heard from again, authorities said Thursday.

The body of Grant Gardner, 38, was found underneath a ledge near the summit of the 13,000-foot Cloud Peak by a professional climbing team from North Carolina, the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

“While it’s not the outcome we hoped for, we are hopeful this will provide much needed peace and closure to the family,” the sheriff’s office said.

Gardner went missing on July 29 in the Cloud Peak Wilderness, where he had planned a three-day hike through the Misty Moon Lake area before eventually summiting Cloud Peak.

Phone records showed Gardner’s last known contact was a message to his wife on that day, “letting her know he’d made it to the summit,” the sheriff’s office has said. Authorities said the text indicated “the climb was more taxing than he expected and he was tired.” (Read more from “Father’s Eerie Last Message to Wife Revealed Before Mountain Tragedy” HERE)

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