I have hiked and camp the area around Kenecott Mine for decades. August is major bear gathering in the area when they are eating the soap berries. Never seen more bears, both black and grizzly in one place except on salmon streams. And there are easy access glaciers to climb, mountains, tundra, raging glacier fed rivers as well as just big hills made of tons of loose gravel to hike on. The weather changes rapidly from warm and sunny to fast moving storm clouds that bring in big rain storms. The temperatures at night in these high mountains this time of year can dip below freezing. The easy access to this wilderness fools a lot of people into thinking that the area is like any other wilderness. My guess was that he was not going to make it far from where he  started and my hope that by some miracle he was going to beat the never ending hazards of this one of a kind majestic area and survive. Sorry for the loss of such a great adventurer, there can never be many of them.