NEWCOMB — The state Department of Environmental Conservation confirmed the location of the remains of Canadian hiker Leo DuFour, who went missing on Allen Mountain in early December and whose body was discovered by hikers on May 10.

According to a wildland search and rescue incident report released Wednesday, DuFour’s body was found about 40 feet off the trail to Allen Mountain near Lake Sally’s eastern shore — about 2.1 miles at an elevation of 1,804 feet from the trailhead parking area.

The report, which the Enterprise obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request, noted that DuFour’s last known location prior to being found was about half a mile from the mountain’s summit, along the trail on the mountain’s west face at an elevation of 3,400 feet, approximately 940 feet beneath the mountain’s summit. The report did not include the time of his last known location or if there was any evidence to suggest which direction DuFour had been moving prior to that point.

Given that Allen is commonly hiked as an out-and-back trail, the location of his remains potentially shows that DuFour, of Quebec, had headed back from his last known location close to the summit and made it most of the way back to the parking lot — about 80% of the distance from the mountain’s summit back to the trailhead traveling one way. He then got about 40 feet off of the trail that led back to the parking lot — prior to dying.

The trail to Allen Mountain’s summit is approximately 9 miles one-way from the trailhead parking lot. The report notes that the remains were discovered by a hiking party coming off the Allen Mountain trail around 9:32 a.m. The party had gone slightly off-trail to get around a wet area when they saw a pair of blue snowshoes further away from the trail in the woods.

The party then returned to the trailhead, drove to an area with cellphone service and placed a call to State Police notifying them of the human remains around 11 a.m. DEC Forest Rangers escorted State Police and the Essex County coroner to the location. The remains were positively identified as DuFour’s, which were brought out of the woods on a six-wheeler and turned over to the coroner.

The report notes that recent rains had removed most of the snow in that area, and there had been a search assignment scheduled for the afternoon of May 10.

Though portions of Allen’s trail are unmarked and unofficial — including the final portion of the hike that gains most of the elevation near the summit — the section of trail where DuFour’s remains were found was marked.

Darkness, poor visibility or fresh snowfall could have obscured things, making it difficult to discern the marked route at the time DuFour was hiking.

Much remains unknown. It’s unclear if DuFour encountered any other navigational, physical or other difficulties during his descent from Allen or what DuFour ultimately died from. The DEC report did not provide a cause of death and a report from the Times Union on Saturday describing the various difficulties searchers faced noted that State Police investigators were still waiting on autopsy results.

Nov. 29, 2024, the day DuFour was hiking and supposed to return, saw high temperatures around 32 degrees F and lows in the 20s for Saranac Lake — with likely colder conditions in the High Peaks.

There was also a multi-day lake effect storm occurring off of Lake Ontario then, which resulted in persistent and, at times, heavy snowfall for the southern High Peaks, where Allen Mountain and its trail are located.

The DEC incident report notes that DuFour’s remains were found within the search area, but that much of the search efforts centered around the summit and north face of Allen Mountain, several miles away from where the remains were ultimately found.

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Search timeline

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The DEC’s Central Dispatch received a call from State Police at 2:30 a.m. on Dec. 1 for an overdue hiker on Allen Mountain. State Police located DuFour’s vehicle at the trailhead and two forest rangers responded. At 5:53 a.m., they were able to locate a set of tracks heading into the woods from the subject’s vehicle, but the recent snow made further tracking difficult.

Additional rangers and resources were brought in, including a State Police helicopter with forward-looking infrared technology. An incident command post was set up at the Newcomb Volunteer Fire Department.

At 6:45 p.m. that evening, the report notes that information provided by the FBI’s Cellular Analysis Survey Team suggested that DuFour continued north off of Allen’s summit toward nearby McDonnel Mountain, although the report does not include details about how the FBI’s finding was reached.

There was a nighttime search then, with personnel making a linear search up to Allen’s summit, then sweeping off the north side.

The next day, Dec. 2 had two aviation search units and a total of 27 forest rangers assigned. Crews continued to search north of Allen’s summit, and other “high probability assignments based on latest intelligence.” At 8 p.m., the aviation searches were cancelled due to weather.

Rangers noted that Allen’s remoteness, coupled with former logging roads that had previously provided access but could no longer support rescue vehicles, drastically hindered search operations.

“Assignments were made extremely difficult due to excessive foot access mileage along old logging roads that had been rendered inaccessible to motor vehicles,” the report stated. “Crews experienced difficulty with deep snow, steep terrain and subfreezing temperatures.”

The assigned rangers completed a total of seven different assignments within the search area that day.

On Dec. 3, 24 forest rangers participated in the search, with a total of nine search area assignments. Two crews were able to be dropped off close to their assignments by helicopter due to a window of acceptable weather conditions for flying. The search area shifted to Allen’s east side and Marcy Swamp areas and rangers set up a base camp on the east side of the mountain.

That continued into Dec. 4. That day, plans for the next search areas were determined, mostly centering north of Allen’s summit. Those consisted of the Mount Redfield summit area and Skylight Brook and Marcy Brook drainage areas, as well as the col between McDonnel and Allen mountains.

Those assignments were completed on Dec. 5, and relief crews were brought in on Dec. 6. Those consisted of 25 forest rangers. Interior searches continued around DuFour’s last known point Dec. 7 and 8. The report notes that snow accumulations had grown considerably since the search had begun.

The active search continued through Dec. 9 before transitioning to a limited continuous search at midnight, with crews and equipment out of the woods. One of the camps was left staged to support future searches as conditions allowed.

There were more aviation search flights on Dec. 15. Those centered around the summits of Allen, McDonnel and Little Nippletop mountains, as well as the Skylight Brook and Marcy Brook drainage areas.

Limited searches resumed in April, mostly from the air, as snow conditions were still waist-deep. Those took place on April 10, 13, 14, 18, 21 and 23. There were ground searches on April 28 in the Allen Mountain area, and the camp that had been left staged in December was removed. The ground crews were dropped off by helicopter and driven out by ATVs, according to the report.

There were additional aerial searches on May 1. Nine days later, with the finding of the remains, the search was officially closed. According to the report, the GPS coordinates of DuFour’s last known location were 44.07151, -73.94603 and the GPS coordinates of where his remains were found were 44.06571, -74.03994.