1KHO 927: The Nation’s Silent Mass Disaster | Jon Billman, The Cold Vanish

Ginny Yurich (0:34)

Hey friends, welcome back to the 1000 Hours Outside Podcast. I'm Ginny Yurich, and I've been looking forward to bringing you this one. A couple of years ago, a friend told me about a book called The Cold Vanish. It's about people who disappear in the wilderness, often in places like our national parks. And I picked it up in 2023 and absolutely loved it. I've thought about this book so many times since then. And today's guest is the author, Jon Billman. Before we get into it, I have something really fun happening that ties perfectly into today's episode. We are giving away a copy of The Cold Vanish and one of our 1000 Hours Outside Children's Backpacks through our newsletter.

And I have to tell you about these backpacks because they are phenomenal. They have a built-in whistle, which as you'll hear today is actually one of the things Jon recommends kids have when they're out adventuring. And they also have a high visibility rain cover. They're designed for kids who are actually going places and doing things outside. So if you're not on our email list yet, make sure you get on there so you can enter the giveaway. And even if you don't win, you can find the backpacks in the 1000 Hours Outside Store. Now, The Cold Vanish has one of those premises that immediately pulls you in. People walk into wild places and sometimes they simply don't come back. Jon spent years reporting on these disappearances and the people who search for the missing. We get into what happens when someone vanishes, why finding a person in millions of acres of wilderness can be nearly impossible, search and rescue dogs, helicopters, survival, Bigfoot and some cases that still don't have answers. And Jon lives in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, which gave us plenty to talk about too. Here is Jon Billman.

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Welcome to the 1000 Hours Outside Podcast. My name is Ginny Yurich. I'm the founder of 1000 Hours Outside. And a couple years back, a friend of mine named Dustin, we were just talking, and he said, I'm reading this incredible book. It's called The Cold Vanish. And it's about people who are disappearing in the United States, like in the national parks. And I was like, oh, I'll be interested in reading that book. So I got a copy back in 2023

And I just loved it. And the author is from Michigan. We're also from Michigan.

Jon Billman, what a book. Welcome.

Jon Billman (4:34)

Thank you. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here, Ginny.

Ginny Yurich (4:36)

Okay, so let's just talk about Michigan for a moment. We live in the lower peninsula, but we have for the past five or six years brought our family to the upper peninsula every summer. It's become a tradition for us to come up there. It is stunning. We stay in Gwynn, Michigan, which is about 30 minutes from Marquette, and at this place called the UP Sunrise Cottages, and then we adventure. We'll go up to Copper Harbor, we'll go to the Porcupine Mountains, we go all of these different places, and it is just a favorite part of our life. So can you talk about how you ended up in Michigan's northern peninsula?