Coming on the heels of the drama on Mount Hood, our search had attracted considerable media attention, and we left Chengdu with a CNN film crew in tow. Two days later, we arrived in 4,019-meter-high Litang, with the CNN folks now suffering from altitude illness and diarrhea. We spent our first day reconnoitering ways that Fowler and Boskoff might have accessed Genyen from the north, rather than via either of the villages to the south. CNN wanted dramatic footage — not just dull images of us going door to door with photos. For a half-hour, we obliged them, donning packs and cold-weather gear and taking a pleasant hike to the top of a small hill a few hours west of Litang. This became the stock footage of the “mountain search” in some of China’s “most rugged terrain.”

Each day brought diminished hope, despite Fowler and Boskoff ’s legendary fortitude. The Telluride search committee had spoken with wilderness medicine experts, and though it was theoretically feasible that they could have survived in the backcountry this long, doubt crept in. Still, the message from the States was very clear: We were to search for live people.

The next day, December 24, after the CNN team departed, we received word that a Litang driver had told police he’d hosted Fowler and Boskoff, had driven them to the trailhead, and had two bags they’d left behind. Initially, the police refused to let us search the bags or speak with the driver, but after the U.S. consulate applied diplomatic pressure, we received permission.