This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2005, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A 77-year-old Midvale man who went missing Monday in the mountains near Heber was found about 11 a.m. today in good condition.
Joel Kohler, a Wasatch County Sheriff's Office captain, said searchers in a fixed-wing airplane spotted John Bjarnson. He was taken to Wasatch County Hospital for an evaluation and was expected to be released later today.
"We were gratefully surprised," said Bjarnson's son, Matt Bjarnson. "We're just glad he made it."
Pilot Brian Rowser told Channel 2 News Bjarnson was waving his arms at the plane.
"First he was an orange dot from a long way off," he said.
Bjarnson was last seen Monday morning by his son-in-law, who planned to do some hunting. He left Bjarnson, who suffers from Parkinson disease, in a meadow for a short time while he scouted the area for hunting.
When he returned, Bjarnson was gone.
More than 100 volunteers, among them Toby Hawkins, Brennan Hawkin's father, joined the search effort.
"'It's a" good ending," Bob Schick, a Wasatch County Sheriff's Office searcher, told Channel 2 News. "It's the way we want to go home."
For Bjarnson's wife, Enid, Monday night was a long one. John Bjarnson had gone missing wearing little more than trousers and a light jacket.
As night fell and temperatures dipped into the 20s, she wondered if her husband, who has both heart and back problems, would make it back.
"It has been real hard," said Enid, 78. "He's out there in the sage brush or whatever all night long. But you know, he's Icelandic stock."
John Bjarnson's father was a native Icelander, she explained.
"But that doesn't mean he 'John Bjarnson" was not cold," she said. "Thank goodness they found him."
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