Search scaled back for Healdsburg man missing for days in Grand Canyon

Peter Schwab saw his chance and took it.

The 66-year-old Healdsburg resident is an inveterate outdoorsman who enjoyed backpacking in the Sierras and Yosemite National Park, and “always loved a good float down the Russian River,” according to his daughter, Vivian Schwab.

When he learned one final spot was available on an expedition down the Colorado River, he jumped on it.

“He loved adventures like this,” his daughter wrote in an email, “and is quick to make lifelong friends.”

Schwab’s adventure took an ominous turn on June 28, when he was reported missing after a day hike into a well-known side canyon. Search teams in helicopters, boats and on foot spent the weekend looking for Schwab, to no avail.

As of Monday, the search continued, though it had been “scaled back,” National Park Service spokeswoman Becky Latanich said.

Schwab had signed up for a trip with Grand Canyon Expeditions, one of the private companies licensed by the park service to guide tourists down the river. His group left Lees Ferry in Marble Canyon, Arizona, on June 17.

Eleven days later, he joined a group that embarked on a pre-lunch hike into National Canyon about 167 meandering miles southwest of Lees Ferry.

Some hundred yards wide at the beginning, the canyon quickly narrows. After 20 or so minutes of walking, the canyon “narrows up and turns semi-technical,” said Jason Tea, who works for Western River Expeditions, another guiding outfit. Continuing on, he said, requires hikers to do “some scrambling, a little bit of bouldering.”

Most hikers turn back before the route gets that challenging, said Tea, who was on that same stretch of the river around 10 days ago.

“When I got away from the water,” he said, “it was extremely hot. If you’re out there without enough water, you can get in real trouble.”

But Schwab was an experienced outdoorsman who was dressed well for conditions: full-brim hat, white long-sleeved shirt, cargo shorts and Teva sandals.

Asked Monday for details about Schwab, the trip he was on and the National Canyon hike, Nan McCormick, the Grand Canyon Expeditions office manager, declined to comment.

It’s also possible that, after leaving the group, Schwab finished the hike, but ended up in the river.

One of the Park Service regulations for companies like Grand Canyon Expeditions is that fluid waste - toothpaste, unwanted coffee, urine - be disposed of in the river, rather than on the narrow beaches and outcroppings lining it.

“But we don’t encourage people to get in the river for that purpose,” said Matt Jenkins, the Park Service’s acting river patrol supervisor. “Generally, that can be accomplished from shore.”

Many people intent on answering nature’s call, however, wade out to where the water is waist deep, Tea said. Once there, they are susceptible to hidden currents.

“It’s possible he was swept downriver,” Tea said.

For over 30 years, Vivian Schwab said, her father was an employee of the San Francisco Unified School District. After retiring, he and his wife, Ann McMahon, moved in 2016 to the Healdsburg property where his grandparents once resided.

This was her father’s second trip to the Grand Canyon, his daughter said. His first was the arduous hike from the south rim to the north rim, a feat he accomplished solo in 1998.

You can reach Staff Writer Austin Murphy at 707-521-5214 or austin.murphy@pressdemocrat.com.