In the high summer of 2012, Garrett Beckwith and his 19-year-old daughter, Della, embarked on what should have been yet another chapter in their long history of unforgettable adventures. The pair shared a deep, mutual passion for climbing and high-altitude hiking, and for this expedition, their destination was the formidable Mount Hooker, located deep within the remote and challenging landscape of Wyoming’s Wind River Range.
For Garrett, the trip promised a familiar chance to reinforce the powerful father-daughter bond that had been meticulously forged over years in the rugged outdoors. For Della, it was the exhilarating thrill of testing her physical and mental limits alongside the man who had been her primary teacher in the intricate art of the climb. But their confident journey into the profound silence of the wilderness was destined to find no return.
The Formidable Challenge of Mount Hooker
Mount Hooker stands as one of the most uncompromising and formidable climbs in the entire continental United States. The mountain rises nearly 12,500 feet into the Wyoming sky, its sheer, unforgiving north face demanding not just skill, but days of rigorous trekking just to reach its exposed base. The inherent danger is compounded by the peak’s extreme isolation, the prevalence of unpredictable and violent weather shifts, and the unforgiving, often unstable terrain—conditions that collectively leave little to no margin for error for even the most seasoned climbers.
Garrett and Della were last reliably observed setting out to begin their ascent. When they failed to reappear at the designated time and checkpoint, family and close friends immediately raised the alarm, triggering one of the most intensive search-and-rescue operations the region had seen. Authorities rapidly deployed specialized teams, including helicopters, search dogs, and ground crews, to scour the vast, rugged landscape. Despite weeks of exhaustive effort and aerial surveillance, tragically, not a single trace of the father and daughter was ever found.
The Torment of Silence and Speculation
The utter absence of any evidence—no discarded gear, no note, no debris—has fueled over a decade of painful speculation and enduring mystery. Some investigators and fellow climbers theorize that they may have suffered a catastrophic fall during their ascent, their bodies potentially concealed forever by deep crevasses or quickly buried under sudden rockfalls characteristic of the area. Others suggest a sudden, violent storm may have forced them far off their intended route into an even more remote region of the range. The extreme, unrelenting remoteness of Mount Hooker makes every theory feel both tragically plausible and fundamentally unshakable.
For their loved ones, the lack of definitive closure has become its own unique kind of torment. To have lost Garrett and Della without the certainty of answers, without a gravesite, without a final accounting of their fate, is a wound that time has been unable to fully heal.
Yet, they are universally remembered not solely for the shocking manner of their disappearance, but for the full, vibrant way they lived—their lives bound together by their deep love, their shared passion for adventure, and the wild, unyielding wilderness they cherished so deeply.
More than a decade later, Mount Hooker continues to stand sentinel over the Wind River Range, its massive granite face unyielding and silent, holding fast to the final secret of the two devoted climbers who ventured in and never found their way back.
