Leo DuFour became lost on Allen Mt. in Nov. 2024
After being missing more than five months, the remains of a man who became lost on a hike up Allen Mt. were discovered on Saturday.
DuFour, 22, was first reported missing in December 2024. After more than 9 days of active searching, that involved 59 forest rangers logging 400 miles by foot, the search was moved into recovery mode. Heavy snowfall and high winds, combined with Allen Mt.’s remote location made for difficult search conditions.
In recent weeks, with the melting of snowpack, rangers had resumed searching by air.
The Adirondack Explorer thanks its advertising partners. Become one of them.
According to a news release from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), a hiking party found the remains of Leo DuFour and notified the agency. Forest Rangers, a DEC Division of Law Enforcement Bureau of Environmental Crimes Investigator, and New York State Police were called to the scene.
“The DEC family offers our deepest condolences to the DuFour family for their loss and extends our appreciation to our dedicated Forest Rangers for their tireless efforts during the continuous and active search effort over the last few months,” the agency stated in the release.
The Adirondack Explorer thanks its advertising partners. Become one of them.
RELATED READING: Previous articles about DuFour can be found here.
Sad story in one of the wilder and more remote areas of the HPW. Condolences to family and friends.
You always want to know the whole story of what happened–maybe we will be filled in, with time. Sources say that Dufour 1) had already climbed 32 of the 46 highest New York peaks 2) had most recently summited Mt Colden, on a different trip 3) had reached the Allen Mountain summit around noon 4) due to cell phone data, much of the search focused on the East side of the mountain and Marcy Swamp–which might be an expected descent, but wrong, if the northwest wind was fierce but 5) a party of hikers, not “searchers” found his body off the regular, unmarked trail, which is only on the West side of the mountain. Maybe injured, maybe tried to build a snow cave to rest and warm up, maybe just exhausted and hypothermic, confused. A water bottle (his?) was found 800 feet below the summit, so maybe he was becoming dehydrated, too. A lot of conflicting information, which hopefully will be reconciled. A winter day trip to Allen has the built-in conflict that a person needs to carry enough warm layers, a minimal shelter, food, and water/fuel to melt snow, while at the same time wanting to move quickly to cover the 18-mile round trip in harsh conditions; and this was on short daylight. A winter hike to this mountain suggests a hike in to a “base camp” at the Allen Brook waterfall, climbing the slide early the next morning, and having the camp to fall back on if the climb presents any problem–all on a favorable 2-day weather forecast. Hopefully hindsight can become someone else’s foresight. ADK 46er, NE 111 #585
well said!
This is tragic, and I know all the SAR participants must be heartbroken. Having once been part of a SAR team that made a find months after a search had to be called off, one of the lessons learned that never seems to make it in the SAR training manuals is how important it is to send out at least one team assigned to make their effort searching the -Easy Way Paths- starting from the PLS. SAR often focuses on covering a grid through difficult terrain in concentric rings around the PLS. During our initial search I was assigned to cover a steep section where the dog had to be assisted up cliff sections in difficult brush. Four months after the search was suspended, we held a last ditch effort during a regular K9-SAR practice, and dogs starting at PLS alerted on the side path leading to the subject just a few hundred meters out of the original search area– 4 months after the search was suspended– after following a pleasant wandering path up the hill through the trees. The dogs on the team were all scented on an old scent article, and two dogs not yet certified were allowed to take the “Easy Way Path” from the now months-old PLS, just in case. Both these dogs were run off lead to avoid leash talk, and showed alternating signs of alert tracking intermixed with ambivalent, but not distracted, behaviour for two hours before indicating the side-path never taken during the initial search. Other certified dog teams that had finished their assigned areas, with no viable alerts or interest from their dogs, joined us in this last ditch effort when we reported the indication. Several tracking dogs were then let off lead at the intersection, after the other handlers also confirmed possible interest that was hard to read in their dogs along the indistinct path we were on. The whole “pack” of our search team moved generally in the same direction, but widely spaced, rounded a bend, and suddenly all bee-lined for the subject’s remains and backpack as the breeze came up the hill. Several dogs returned to their handlers and alerted; other dogs stayed with the subject. Since scent can possibly allow dogs to track after 4 months, it’s also really, really unfortunate this search did not seem to have any canines available. This kind of search might well have been able to get an indication of direction off the summit, at least, having scent objects to start the dogs or using avalanche trained dogs. So sorry this happened… great advice in the comment above. Our hearts are with everyone affected by this tragedy.
I wonder what the corners report said about cause of death?