Uinta Triangle: The last person to see Eric Robinson alive

MYTON, Duchesne County — A scoutmaster who encountered Australian solo hiker Eric Robinson in the Uinta Mountains, shortly before Robinson disappeared in 2011, is sharing his story publicly for the first time in KSL’s Uinta Triangle podcast.

The account sheds new light on the risky conditions Robinson, 64, faced and the decisions he made while attempting to cross from Chepeta Lake to the Highline Trailhead on the Uinta Highline Trail.

Robinson failed to meet a friend at the end of the trail as planned on Sunday, Aug. 7, 2011, prompting a search-and-rescue mission that spanned the vast expanse of the High Uintas Wilderness. That search failed to turn up any sign of Robinson.

Encounter along the Yellowstone River

Russ Alston was one of three adults leading a group of three teenagers on a 50-mile hike into the High Uintas Wilderness during the first week of August.

“Kings Peak, the highest point in Utah, was the ultimate goal,” Alston said.

Related: Uinta Triangle: The investigation of an Australian hiker’s 2011 disappearance in Utah’s backcountry

The scout party started northward from the Swift Creek Trailhead, on the flank of the Uinta Mountains, on Monday, Aug. 1, 2011. They spent a night in the canyon along Yellowstone Creek, then continued up the trail toward the basin below Kings Peak the next morning.

At about 11:45 on Aug. 2, the scout group stopped to rest midway between the trail junctions for Garfield Basin and Bluebell Pass.

“A gentleman comes down the trail that we meet going up,” Alston said. “He looked fit and like he’d been out for a few days and he was prepared for that.”

Alston noted the man spoke with an Australian accent, was wearing sturdy leather boots and seemed well equipped. The solo hiker introduced himself as “Eric,” and spoke about past experiences trekking in Australia, New Zealand, the High Sierra and Nepal.

“He had vast experience,” Alston said. “He may have listed a few other places.”

Eric reportedly told Alston he was currently hiking the Uinta Highline Trail.

“That caught me a little bit off guard,” Alston said.

The Uinta Highline Trail crosses the range from east to west, staying near to the crest of the range. The Yellowstone Creek Trail, where Robinson encountered Alston’s Boy Scout group, travels perpendicular to the Highline, going north-south.

The place where Robinson ran into Alston’s Boy Scouts sat about five miles south of the Highline Trail, meaning Robinson was far off his stated route.

“I believe he recognized he was off-trail,” Alston said.

Eric Robinson’s experience on Anderson Pass

Robinson reportedly told Alston he’d lost the Highline Trail a day earlier while descending from Anderson Pass. That pass is the high point on the trail, roughly 12,700 feet above sea level.

To the west of Anderson Pass, the Highline Trail traverses along a steep, rocky slope. Robinson told Alston portions of that traverse were covered by high-angle snow.

“If you slip, you can’t necessarily stop yourself on snow if you’re not equipped with an ice ax,” Alston said.

The winter of 2010-2011 packed an abnormally large amount of snow in the Uinta Mountains, and cool weather in April and May significantly delayed the snowmelt. Snow conditions on Anderson Pass during Robinson’s crossing on Aug. 1 were more similar to what might be expected in mid-June during an average year.

Robinson was not carrying a rope, ice ax, crampons, helmet or other equipment necessary to safely cross these snow drifts, and was forced to divert off the trail in an attempt to avoid them.

“His description was letting himself down over more than just boulders, but kind of cliff faces,” Alston said. “I am picturing him from Anderson Pass going straight down.”

That off-trail descent would’ve required Robinson to pick his way down through a band of cliffs, a high-consequence situation where a fall would likely prove fatal.

“He had scraped-up knuckles, skin a little bit roughed up like the mountains can do, maybe he knees,” Alston said. “He was complaining about that.”

Eric Robinson’s return to the Uinta Highline Trail

During their conversation, Alston advised Robinson that he could return to the Uinta Highline either by backtracking north up the Yellowstone Creek Trail, or by continuing a short distance south to the junction with the trail into the Garfield Basin.

“We got maps out and I kind of described some of those options he had,” Alston said.

Robinson reportedly told Alston he would take the Garfield Basin option. The two men then parted ways.

“Once I head north, he heads south,” Alston said. “We don’t see each other after 20, 30 yards. Turn the next corner, he can be anywhere up there.”

Alston’s group reached the intersection of the Yellowstone Creek and Uinta Highline Trails later that afternoon, and they attempted to ascend Anderson Pass en route to Kings Peak the next day.

Alston recalled reaching the edge of the snowdrift that’d forced Robinson off the trail.

“We choose not to go across it,” Alston said. “I kind of sorted through and understood what he was describing, that he came off the hill and went directly downhill … kind of a treacherous path.”

Russ Alston learns Eric Robinson is missing

A week-and-a-half later, on Saturday, Aug. 13, Russ Alston received a telephone call from Jay Simmons, one of the other adult leaders who’d accompanied him on the High Uintas trip.

“He said, ‘Did you read the paper this morning?’ And I said, ‘No.’ And he said, ‘Read the front page of the local,’” Alston said.

The Deseret News published a story that morning about an ongoing search-and-rescue mission for Robinson. The article noted the last known sighting of Robinson had occurred on July 30 at Fox Lake.

“We’d seen him after the report from the newspaper,” Alston said.

Alston and Simmons contacted the Duchesne County Sheriff’s Office to report their Aug. 2 encounter with Robinson.

Alston told the sheriff’s office Robinson was carrying both a paper map and a Garmin GPS unit. It seemed odd then that Robinson had ended up five miles off the Uinta Highline Trail, down in a forested river canyon well away from the crest of the Uinta range.

“The only thing I came away questioning was his navigation, how he got off trail and couldn’t get back on efficiently,” Alston said.

That prompted speculation among search planners, as well as Robinson’s family, that he might’ve become disoriented or lost.

In an official report, Duchesne County Chief Deputy Dave Boren wrote, “Robinson told [Jay Simmons] that he met a sheep herder after he crossed Anderson Pass and tried to get some directions from him, but he didn’t speak English.”

However, a review of all available evidence by KSL’s Uinta Triangle podcast now suggests Robinson’s departure from the Uinta Highline Trail on Aug. 2, 2011, might not have been a navigational error, but instead an intentional decision to bail out.

Eric Robinson decides to bail out

Robinson’s wife, Marilyn Koolstra, also said her husband was not accustomed to traveling on high-angle snow.

“Eric hated the snow, growing up in cold Scotland,” Koolstra said. “He would prefer not to be hiking through snow. He certainly would try to go around that.”

Robinson knew from first-hand experience that the consequences of a slip on steep snow could be fatal. His close friend and hiking partner, Alan Beck, had died three years earlier in a fall from a glacier in New Zealand.

An experienced hiker and mountaineer named Art Lang crossed Anderson Pass on Aug. 9, a little over a week after Robinson. Lang and his hiking partner saw two snowdrifts covering portions of the trail. One of these was the same drift Robinson left the trail to avoid.