Oregon Teen Search Suspended For Bad Weather

The search for a teen missing in Oregon has been suspended as bad weather kept crews from where a 19-year-old adventurer went missing.

The Oklahoma teen trekked into the southeastern Oregon wilderness as a way to test himself, leaving his family home in Oklahoma City close to a month ago. Nineteen-year-old Dustin SElf’s pickup truck was found near where the search is taking place, but searchers have no sign of him yet.

The search for the teen began on Tuesday after a rancher found Self’s truck off of a country road. Search crews saw no tracks, and began looking in remote cabins around the Steens Mountain. The search was called Friday and Saturday as weather conditions worsened.

The Oregon teen search will resume once the weather conditions improve and snow begins to melt, said Sheriff Dave Clerup of Harney County.

The Oklahoma teenager was inspired to try his hand at the rugged southeastern Oregon wilderness by the movie Into the Wild, his parents said. The movie chronicles Christopher McCandless, a young college graduate who sold his possessions and began trekking across the United States.

His travels took McCandless into the Alaskan wilderness, where he was overwhelmed with the difficulties of living in the wild and died of starvation.

Crews aren’t expecting to find the teen alive, Clerup said. He suspects that Self has either died in the wilderness or hitched a ride out to somewhere else.

Once Self decided on his trip to the wilderness, his parents could not stop him.

“We did everything we could to try to talk him out of it,” said the teen’s mother, Tammy Self. “He was leaving, no matter what.”

Though Self was well-stocked with gear for his trip, he had very little experience in the wild.

“He is not a survivalist,” said his father, Victor Self. “He is a very urban child.”

The Oregon teen search could continue later this week, Clerup said.