SITKA — Four days of searching for a man missing after a day-hike on Mt. Verstovia ended Friday afternoon with the discovery of his body at the bottom of a steep mountainside slope.
Michael Hansen, 37, was last seen at the top of the mountain the afternoon of Sept. 19. The search started the next day when his colleagues at Sitka Counseling and Prevention Services reported he had not turned up for work, and his car was found parked by friends at the Verstovia trailhead. The Forest Service, police and fire departments, search and rescue, Coast Guard, Alaska State Troopers and other community volunteers took part in the search effort.
Around 4:20 p.m. Friday, a search team spotted Hansen at the 1,160-foot level above Jamestown Drive, said Sitka Police Lt. Lance Ewers, captain of the search and rescue squad. Ewers posted on Facebook that the body was found, saying it appeared that Hansen had died from a 75-foot fall down the steep slope.
“It’s an emotional roller-coaster,” Ewers said at the end of the four-day search. “It’s such a sad deal with the family and with our community. It’s a loss. We had so many people involved in the search, and we were ultimately able to find a needle in a haystack.”
During the last three days of the search, a Juneau search and rescue team, the Southeast Alaska Dogs Organized for Ground Search (SEADOGS), helped look for Hansen as well. SEADOGS Team Manager Bruce Bowler told the Empire Monday that on Wednesday, a Coast Guard crew helped insert four of the team’s dogs in the search area. Forest Service employees helped guide the dogs and crew through bear country, Bowler said.
“It was a tough search, probably some the toughest terrain we’ve seen in quite some time,” Bowler said.
The area that searchers covered was steep, wet and people could only see four feet ahead of themselves, he added.
Only hours before Hansen was found, Ewers issued a call for “everyone willing and able” to report to the fire department Saturday morning for an all-out push to locate the missing hiker.
Ewers said the case is still under investigation, and Hansen’s body has been sent to the state crime lab for autopsy. He said it appears Hansen had hiked to the top of the peak, and instead of going back down via Picnic Rock decided to take a short cut straight down the mountain.
“It’s so bushy, so you don’t see it’s going to get real steep real fast,” Ewers said. “You’re stepping on roots and branches, and the branches are so slippery, once you start sliding you slide. It looks like he slipped and couldn’t self-arrest.”
There are several places where the terrain “cliffs out,” Ewers said.
A group of three searchers from the Forest Service and a member of the fire department’s search and rescue squad discovered Hansen’s watch and other items that belonged to him, and shortly afterward found the body farther down the slope, Ewers said.
A Coast Guard helicopter was launched in an effort to retrieve the body on Friday, but as the rescue swimmer was being lowered he called it off because of hazards posed by the 200-foot-tall trees and the steepness of the slope, Ewers said.
Three teams of technical climbers were sent to the area at 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. Friday, climbing up from Jamestown Drive. Police officer Mary Ferguson and Ewers also climbed to the scene to investigate. The teams worked all night and carried the body out at 6:30 a.m. Saturday.
“It’s important to the family, it provides closure to the family,” Ewers said. “Everybody wants to know what happened, too, so we can learn from it. It was success through technical expertise, teamwork and volunteerism. It’s sad, it’s a tragedy but it was real relief we were able to bring closure to the family.”
Hansen was originally from Wisconsin, but moved to Sitka in July from Anchorage, and worked at Sitka Counseling. He was a former Army Ranger. His parents, Ruth and Jim Hansen of Waukesha, Wisconsin, arrived in Sitka Wednesday.
• This story first appeared in the Daily Sitka Sentinel and is reprinted here with permission. Juneau Empire reporter Paula Ann Solis contributed information about the Juneau search team’s effort to this report.
