The Story of the Lost Boy - Meet and Greet
The Colorado Snowsports Museum and the Sebastian Vail are teaming up to invite you to a special evening at the Museum for a meet and greet with Marty Koether - the Lost Boy. The event will take place on:
TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2024 - FROM 4-6 PM
The Colorado Snowsports Museum - VAIL, COLORADO
Come meet Marty and learn more about that horrific day - that had a very happy ending! We are also hoping to have members of the rescue team in attendance. Welcome back to Vail, Marty!
Cocktails and other beverages will be available. Learn more below about what happened to Marty on that day.
Have you ever skied the run Lost Boy at Vail Mountain and wondered how the run got its name? It all goes back to April 1, 1964, when Vail was a lot less developed than it is today. Lost Boy is named after Martin Koether. When he was 14, he skied into Game Creek Bowl by mistake before it was developed and spent the long and cold night in a snow cave under a tree while rescuers searched the mountain for him – all during a blizzard. He made his way safely out of the bowl the following day and was discovered by Ski Patrol.
When interviewed by the Vail Daily in 2003 (Andy Stonehouse), Martin explained, “Reality suddenly hit me. I was there by myself and lost, and the sun was going to be going down and I was probably going to be there for the night.” Martin goes on: “So I remembered my Boy Scout training and burrowed into a tree well under a big fir, covering myself with tree boughs, and bedded down for the night.”
Martin didn’t realize it at the time, but when he failed to appear at the base of the mountain at day’s end, his panicked uncle and aunt contacted the authorities. Ski Patrol immediately started one of the most extensive searches ever conducted on the mountain. By midnight, 65 ski patrollers and volunteers were traversing Vail Mountain, searching for the lost boy – one group even descended into the untracked Game Creek.
“Apparently they came within 100 yards of me during the night, but I didn’t hear anyone”
Unable to find the boy, rescuers called off the search at 3 am and decided to reconvene at 7:30 am, hoping to bring in help from Rocky Mountain Rescue, Arapahoe Basin, and Breckenridge ski patrols, and even helicopters from the state government.
In the morning, Koether awoke a little cold but mostly unscathed and realized he had a very long climb ahead of him.
“I knew I had to walk back up the bowl to reach Mid-Vail, but the snow was so deep you’d take three steps and then fall in up to your waist,” Martin said to the Vail Daily. “I’d also lost my glasses and I was kind of squinting to see where I was going.”
As Martin trudged through the trees, the mountain's front side was a flurry of activity, with patrollers continuing their search. Even Colorado Governor John Love called in to ski patrol offering his help. Given the amount of snow overnight and the temperatures, searchers – and Martin’s own family – had begun to fear the worst.
At about 3:30 pm, chief patroller John Adams and two other patrollers did another sweep along the top of the Minturn Mile, the last place Martin had been seen. In the distance, they noticed a thin figure walking through the snow without his skis. As Skiing Magazine reported at the time, the patrollers realized they’d found their lost boy.
Martin simply looked down at his boots and reportedly said, “Gee, you guys, I didn’t mean to cause you any trouble.”
“My family … and everyone … was totally ecstatic,” Martin told Stonehouse. “The rumor had been going around town that I was gone, because of the snowstorm and the weather…they thought they might never find me.”
Years later, back at home near Chicago, Martin got word that his disappearance – and his happy self-rescue – had been commemorated with a new trail into Game Creek.
To this day, Martin remains an avid skier.
Source: Vail Daily, 2003 (Andy Stonehouse), Article title: "Lost Boy" back in Vail
Photos are from the Colorado Snowsports Museum archive.
The Colorado Snowsports Museum and the Sebastian Vail are teaming up to invite you to a special evening at the Museum for a meet and greet with Marty Koether - the Lost Boy. The event will take place on:
TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2024 - FROM 4-6 PM
Colorado Snowsports Museum - VAIL, COLORADO
The Colorado Snowsports Museum would like to take a moment to thank the Sebastian and their GM John D'Angelo who has a proven record of success in elevating community through programs like this one. Thank you for supporting our mission! Here’s to continuing to preserve and share our history of Vail!
About the Colorado Snowsports Museum and Hall of Fame:
Founded in 1975 and located in Vail, Colorado, our mission is to celebrate Colorado snow sports by telling stories that educate and inspire others to seek adventure. The priceless artifacts we collect and display tell the story of the birth, rise and explosion of skiing and snowboarding in Colorado. The Museum features displays including Climb to Glory about the 10th Mountain Division, Vail's DNA, The Colorado Snowboard Archive, and The Colorado Snowsports Hall of Fame, among many others. Learn more and consider supporting the Museum by becoming a member: https://www.snowsportsmuseum.org.