Shuei Kato is no stranger to the outdoors and had already conquered many of the California Fourteeners, a series of mountain peaks that are higher than 14,000 ft. This made the Missouri mountain look like just another slope to climb and standing at 14,067 feet high, Kato was sure he could handle it.
His usual climbing partner wasn’t available for this one, so he decided to go alone. Fortunately Kato had alot of experience in mountain climbing and knew not to take any chances, packing a stove, some extra warm clothing and 24 hours worth of food for a hike that should take no more than 8 hours.
Just after 7am on the 7th October 2017, Kato began his climb and just like the series of mountains he had conquered before he was making excellent time. Before long the woodland started to thin out and the snow began to get deeper, though this wasn’t a worry as he checked the weather report before leaving and was under the impression it was going to be a nice day.
After just over four hours Kato reached the peak and sat for a while, marvelling in the amazing view and scoping out near-by peaks for future climbs. He later said in an interview he tried to spend as much time there as he safely could as the view was incredible and he was sure the climb down would be much faster.
When he was ready to come down Kato realised the snow had long covered his tracks and since the peak was the main point of guidance on the climb, he didn’t have anything below him to use as a landmark to guide his descent. He spent about an hour trying to work out which way he came up but ended up with nothing.
He tried walking in what he thought would be the right direction and ended up running into a cliff, so he tried other directions only to come up against a snow drift or an unfamiliar rock formation.
When he knew he was completely lost he came up with a plan. He figured the trail he used ran along the west ridge before turning to the north, and from the suns location he thought he was on the north side. If he walked far enough down the north-face he would come across the trail, so he started walking past unfamiliar trees and a bridge before coming across a sign that said “Elkhead Pass”.
Following the trail Kato thought he would come across something soon, but now the sun was setting and he remembered the promise he made to his wife about returning home that afternoon, something that made him panic and caused him to move faster.
He spent the first night constantly moving, hoping to come out at a car park or street somewhere, and with the low night time temperatures moving helped him keep warm. He kept going until dawn when he heard a helicopter on the far side of the mountain, but waving his red jacket around on the end of a hiking pole didn’t get its attention.
The last time he had phone reception was on the first half of the climb, and after he knew he was lost he turned it off to save the battery. Since he was now in a new place he thought he might try his phone again and spotted a small peak half way up the mountain side, something that took him 2 hours to get to the top of. Upon reaching the peak he turned his phone on only to watch the battery die before it could fully boot up, a crushing blow to his moral followed and he recalls this was the first time he knew his life was in danger.
He tried to make it back to the trail but got lost on his way back down and couldn’t find it. Knowing that if he stopped he could die, and also filled with motivation to make it back to his wife, Kato pressed on and walked through woods and slopes only to come across nothing useful.
That night he began to hallucinate and thought he heard the sound of a car playing music and saw trail signs on many of the trees, only to realise they weren’t really there on closer inspection. It had now been two full days of hard climbing with no sleep and his supplies were almost gone, but fearing for the worst he pressed forward.
The next day was spent on the move and he was now dangerously close to collapse. The days walking didn’t prove useful as the only thing he found out was that he was on the wrong side of the mountain to his car, a realisation he found after climbing another peak to check for signs of people.
He didn’t have the energy to keep moving through a third night, so he gathered some pine branches and made a quick shelter, afraid that if he slept for too long he might freeze to death. Due to his extreme exhaustion he slept a few hours that night and found himself shivering upon waking at dawn.
Fearing that day would be the same as before he tried to gather the strength to get up and start moving, but then he heard the faint sound of a helicopter in the distance. Not sure if he was hearing things or not Kato lit a small pile of tinder to create some smoke just in-case and climbed out his shelter.
An overwhelming sense of joy flooded through him as a tiny dot in the sky started to get bigger along with the thundering sound of its spinning blades, and Kato began to jump up and down like a crazy person, frantically waving his jacket in the air. The helicopter saw him and picked him up, taking him straight to hospital.
Because he had kept moving, brought extra warm clothing and only slept a few hours on one of the nights, he hadn’t suffered from frostbite and apart from being exhausted was otherwise fine.