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Not discounting, just saying its a big place and the exact location has not been released "publicly"...

Personally I feel there is plenty of reason to be hopeful that this is her, and there's nothing wrong with being optimistic.

I am not trying to get peoples hopes "down", I am just saying there is a lot of information that you don't know about this discovery, it may make us come to a different conclusion if we did and I would feel really bad giving a family a glimmer of hope just to take it away again when more facts are available. I am sure you all have the best intentions, but maybe its best to wait on this one until more is learned and avoid further hardship to an already suffering family.

It's not terra nova. Miners, photographers, explorers, hunters, and their predecessors have been up or through there for a long ways back. Many "modern trails" are old mining routes, or older Indian routes, or older game trails. While I agree it would be nice for the Vaneck family/friends to have closure, it could just as easily be from a fatally injured miner who was buried decades ago in the alpine after a mining accident with a wooden grave marker that has since erroded, soil washed away, animal dug into shallow grave, etc. Wouldn't want to get their hopes up only to be dashed again. Heck, I found a sawed-off knee bone from something big (human? cow? other?) out there on a log road and only wish I took a photo in hindsight to facilitate identification and location (did notify appropriate body as a unknown and non-urgent). There are also some graves up in Holy Cross City (IIRC) and no doubt other places too, less visited and less well marked. I'm sure the facts and details will come out in due time when they are known and proper contacts first made if needed.

There was another hiker who disappeared without a trace in August 1994. I'd suggest patience before coming to any conclusions.

I say keep on speculating as much as possible, otherwise I'm going to stop reading this thread.

It looks like the partial skull found is most likely that of James Nelson, the hiker who went missing in 2010, based on the location of the discovery. The story has been updated on the Vail Daily web site: http://www.vaildaily.com/news/7647373-1 ... cross-holy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Jim Davies wrote:There was another hiker who disappeared without a trace in August 1994. I'd suggest patience before coming to any conclusions.

+1

If there's one thing that can be said about the Holy Cross Wilderness it is that it seems to have the "Bermuda Triangle" reputation of Colorado. I'm not sure how many people have vanished there, but it seems that I've heard about quite a few. Hopefully this discovery leads to closure for at least one of the families involved in these tragedies, but as others have pointed out already, it's too soon to tell for sure.

There sure is an awful lot of territory in which one can get lost out there!

rufhausen wrote:It looks like the partial skull found is most likely that of James Nelson, the hiker who went missing in 2010, based on the location of the discovery. The story has been updated on the Vail Daily web site: http://www.vaildaily.com/news/7647373-1 ... cross-holy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Most of that article's text has been covered with grey blocks for some reason.

DaveSwink wrote:

rufhausen wrote:It looks like the partial skull found is most likely that of James Nelson, the hiker who went missing in 2010, based on the location of the discovery. The story has been updated on the Vail Daily web site: http://www.vaildaily.com/news/7647373-1 ... cross-holy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Most of that article's text has been covered with grey blocks for some reason.

You need to answer a question on the page first before you can continue reading the article. The question is on the left side of the page.

Thread on James Nelson's disappearance:

http://www.14ers.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... mes+Nelson