Skull found in Holy Cross Wilderness

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Chicago Transplant
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Re: Skull found in Holy Cross Wilderness

Post by Chicago Transplant »

Not discounting, just saying its a big place and the exact location has not been released "publicly"...
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Re: Skull found in Holy Cross Wilderness

Post by its_not_a_tuba »

Personally I feel there is plenty of reason to be hopeful that this is her, and there's nothing wrong with being optimistic.
"Wilderness settles peace on the soul because it needs no help. It is beyond human contrivance." -- E.O. Wilson
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Re: Skull found in Holy Cross Wilderness

Post by Chicago Transplant »

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.
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Re: Skull found in Holy Cross Wilderness

Post by TallGrass »

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.
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Re: Skull found in Holy Cross Wilderness

Post by Jim Davies »

There was another hiker who disappeared without a trace in August 1994. I'd suggest patience before coming to any conclusions.
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Re: Skull found in Holy Cross Wilderness

Post by Roald »

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

Roald, in that one sentence you managed to demonstrate that A) you're an idiot and B) you're a hypocrite, and a perfect example of the cause of the modern-day problems in this country.
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Re: Skull found in Holy Cross Wilderness

Post by rufhausen »

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;
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Re: Skull found in Holy Cross Wilderness

Post by tlongpine »

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
I am unable to walk away from the mountain without climbing it. An unclimbed mountain tugs at my consciousness with the eternal weight of time itself. Until I've pressed my face into it's alpine winds, hugged it's ancient granite walls, and put it's weathered summit beneath my heal I'm unable to resist it's attraction.Knowing nature gives the mountain more time than she gives us adds urgency to the obsession. As has been said before; the mountain doesn't care.

It can wait forever. I cannot.
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Re: Skull found in Holy Cross Wilderness

Post by coloradokevin »

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!
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Re: Skull found in Holy Cross Wilderness

Post by DaveSwink »

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.
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Re: Skull found in Holy Cross Wilderness

Post by Liquid Shadow »

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.
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Re: Skull found in Holy Cross Wilderness

Post by Greenhouseguy »

Thread on James Nelson's disappearance:

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