Revised January 2021
James “Jim” McGrogan disappeared March 14, 2014. Body found April 3, 2014, Booth Falls, Vail, Colorado
39-year-old Dr. James “Jim” McGrogan, was visiting Vail in March 2014, a small town at the base of Vail Mountain and the center of the huge ski resort, set within the White River National Forest in Colorado. During the trip, he became separated from his group on a hike and his body was found a few weeks later. Just misadventure, bad luck, or something else?
Who was Doctor James McGrogan?
Doctor McGrogan had recently returned to Indiana from Wisconsin to work in the emergency room of St. Joseph Regional Medical Centre in Mishawaka.
The hike to the Eiseman Hut and Camp Hale
On the morning of March 14, 2014, at about 8:30 am, Jim and three hiking companions left on the 9-mile hike to the Eiseman Hut and beyond to Camp Hale. The camp is a collection of huts deep in the mountains to serve as temporary shelters for hikers or campers. The site was originally built in the 1940s as the home of the 10th Mountain Division and a mountain warfare training area.
At the time there was a lot of snow in the area - several feet deep in some areas. There are two main routes from the Vail area to the Eiseman Hut. One via Spraddle Creek and a more westerly route via Red Sandstone Creek. It is not clear which route the group took that day but both were used heavily and were well marked with compacted snow.
Although the Hut was only 4 miles from the group’s starting point and right near US Interstate 70, the hike itself was up a meandering 9-mile trail through steep and treacherous wooded terrain, and the hut is not considered easy to reach, one of the reasons it is such a popular target for hikers. Although it was to be a challenging hike, McGrogan and company were experienced with the outdoors and well prepared. McGrogan himself carried with him a cell phone, basic medical supplies, a sleeping bag, avalanche beacon, GPS, warm clothing, and plenty of food and water.
Eiseman Hut, Vail, Colorado
Doctor McGrogan begins to hike alone
At about 10 am, with the hikers still about 5 miles from the hut, the group stopped to rest. According to his companions, Jim decided to hike on ahead of the party, and they expected to catch up with him along the way.
After Jim left the others behind to hike on alone he vanished. When the rest of the group reached the Eiseman Hut it was late afternoon on March 14th, there was no sign at all of McGrogan.He was never seen alive again.
The search for James McGrogan
By 5.30 pm the hikers had notified the Vale Department of Public Safety and subsequently, the Eagle Valley Sheriff's Department. A rescue operation was started over an 18 square mile area.
McGrogan was well equipped so the authorities were not too concerned - food, water, and warm clothing. He was also carrying a split snowboard (a snowboard that divides lengthwise) plus skins and other equipment from Confluence Kayaks in Denver and was wearing the boots that went with the board.
McGrogan's cell phone pinged once the day he went missing but, after that, it went dead.
Over the next three days, teams of searchers on foot, snowmobile and three helicopters from the National Guard's High Altitude Aviation Training Site (HAATS), based in nearby Gypsum, Colorado searched the area. But by Tuesday, March 18th, bad weather forced the search to be suspended.
Crews had spent a combined 1,000 hours searching for McGrogan. A five-day search failed to find any sign of him despite snow in the area which would have indicated if someone was hiking or skiing off trail.
McGrogan’s body recovered
20 days later, McGrogan’s body was found by a group of back country skiers about 4 1/2 miles from the trail on April 3rd, 2014, near the Booth Falls area, way to the east of the Eiseman Hut.
The reporting party told authorities that he and two others were skiing the Booth Falls area when they located the dead body in an ice fall below Booth Falls laying on top of an ice sheet (an icefall is a frozen waterfall which flows down a steep slope). He was found wearing his helmet, no coat, no gloves, and very strangely with no boots. In his backpack his cell phone was discovered and in this area there appeared to be active cellular reception. Jim's snowboard was also found nearby but his boots were never located.
James McGrogan location of body Booth Falls, Vail, Colorado
Autopsy and cause of death
On April 7th, 2014, Eagle County Coroner, Kara Bettis, said that James McGrogan died of multiple injuries, including head trauma and to the left side of his chest and a broken femur. His death was ruled an accident.
What happened to Dr. Jim McGrogan?
What happened to Dr. Jim McGrogan on March 14, 2014? He hiked 12-14 miles (4.5 miles as the crow flies) across the backcountry in deep snow (up to 8 feet in places) and apparently lost his boots. Perhaps he succumbed to hypothermia and began to paradoxically undress? Why didn't he use his cell phone or GPS tracker both of which were fully functional? Why did he become separated from his hiking group and decide to leave on his own for Eiseman Hut? A very mysterious case from the mountains around Vail.
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Sources
http://www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/UPDATE-Rescue-search-for-missing-hiker-turns-into-recovery-mission-251109751.html
https://www.postindependent.com/news/local/missing-ind-hikers-body-found-just-1-5-miles-from-the-booth-falls-trailhead/
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/porter/duneland/chesterton/chesterton-man-missing-on-hiking-trip-in-colorado/article_a280b58e-3ec5-5ac4-a042-88b75ec09dbc.html
https://www.vaildaily.com/news/severe-weather-hampers-vail-area-search-for-missing-man/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TlGc4slOMo
http://guardianlv.com/2014/04/missing-indian-hiker-dr-james-mcgrogan-found-dead-in-colorado-mountains/
