After rescue teams, helicopters, dogs and drones spent 20 days scouring the wilderness in Wyoming for Grant Gardner, officials have suspended search efforts. The 38-year-old hiker and father of two from Minnesota was last heard from on July 29.

“In consultation with family members, I have made the heartbreaking and difficult decision to suspend active search and rescue operations for Mr. Gardner,” Sheriff Ken Blackburn of the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office said in a release on Wednesday, Aug. 20. 

He said that search and rescue teams had “exhausted all resources.” 

“With weather conditions and other factors updated in our search models,” the sheriff continued, “we have to face the reality that the most optimistic survival odds have run out.”

The news comes two weeks after Gardner’s wife, Lauren Gardner — who has been anxiously waiting for good news to share with their two children, ages 11 and 13 — said she still had hope that her husband would be found alive.

“I’m in shock, I think, and trying to stay strong for the kids,” Lauren told Cowboy State Daily earlier this month. “This has never happened in all the years he’s gone out. He knows what he’s doing and has the skills. I’m just hoping right now.”

According to his wife, Grant was an experienced outdoorsman who has “been hiking for over a decade.” 

“He’s used to this stuff, and he’s very detail-oriented,” Lauren told the outlet.

In July, her husband set out for a three-day hiking trip through the Misty Moon Lake area, with plans of summiting Cloud Peak, before returning to his vehicle, according to the initial post from the sheriff’s office.

Lauren last heard from Grant on the evening of Tuesday, July 29, when he texted her that he’d reached the summit, but that the “climb was more taxing than he expected and he was tired,” authorities said. 

The next day, officials were notified that there was an “overdue hiker in the Cloud Peak Wilderness area,” and they immediately began a search and rescue operation. Grant’s vehicle was found by searchers in the West Ten Sleep trailhead parking lot, where he had left it at the start of his hike.

A log at the trailhead showed that he’d entered the hiking area as he’d intended, according to the release. But search managers were concerned when phone records revealed that Grant reached the top of the 13,000-foot mountain that Tuesday around 7 p.m. local time, with plans to head to lower elevation for the night. 

From the beginning, the search was a harrowing one. In the original Aug. 4 release, the sheriff’s office said that at least two rescuers had to receive treatment for medical conditions. 

“In addition to high altitude and terrain challenges, difficult weather patterns including winds, thunder and lightning storms have made search efforts difficult at various times of the day,” officials said at the time. 

The Cloud Peak Wilderness is “deceptively expansive, remote, and snow is starting to fall at higher elevations above 10,000 feet,” officials said in an update on Monday, Aug. 11. Despite the challenges, multiple search and rescue teams spent days looking for the missing man. 

When announcing the end of the search, Blackburn acknowledged that “many team members feel like they have lost a battle by not finding Grant at this time,” but he said it’s not from lack of effort. The sheriff shared his thanks and pride at the hard work of the rescue teams, and shared the Gardner family’s appreciation for everyone that tried to find Grant.

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“While grieving, they are humbled, and grateful beyond words,” Blackburn said. Though team members are pausing, the search hasn’t ended indefinitely. 

“Our teams will rest, then begin search and recovery efforts as time and evidence allow,” said the sheriff. He added that multiple citizen volunteers continue to look for clues about Grant’s disappearance “to bring peace to this family.”