Body of Yosemite hiker, a Petaluma native, is recovered

The family of Hayden Klemenok, the 24-year-old Petaluma native who fell into a swollen creek in Yosemite National Park and was swept away by the current, announced Tuesday that his body has been recovered.

“On Sunday morning, we were notified that Hayden had been located,” said Klemenok’s sister, Taylor McKinnie, in a statement posted online. “Due to the complexity of his location, it took another 24 hours to formally recover him.”

The discovery ended a one-week search for Klemenok, who went missing July 2 at around 2 p.m. after losing his grip at the banks of Chilnualna Creek and falling into the rushing waters.

Klemenok, a recent graduate of San Diego State University, had been on a backpacking trip in Yosemite with a half dozen of his college friends. Their hike that day was strenuous, rising 2,200 vertical feet over 4 miles, to the upper reaches of Chilnualna Falls. While the climb was difficult, the trail offered stunning views of waterfalls and the Wawona Dome.

At one point, according to news reports, Klemenok approached the edge of Chilnualna Creek, swollen with snowmelt and moving swiftly. When he got down on all fours, either to take a drink or cool his head, he fell in and was swept away.

While his friends ran after him, according to NBC7 News in San Diego, which spoke to Klemenok’s father, he soon disappeared from sight, and hadn’t been seen since. Park officials said it was likely he was carried over the falls.

Family friends said Klemenok’s parents, Kevin and Michelle, traveled to Yosemite immediately after his disappearance. But a San Francisco Chronicle report indicated they left the park without hope of finding their son alive.

“I’m leaving here with his three siblings, his mother, and an aunt, and we don’t have him,” Kevin Klemenok, a Petaluma teacher and musician, told the newspaper. “It’s horrible.”

Strong athlete

Hayden Klemenok was a dedicated athlete who played baseball at Santa Rosa Junior College and before that, Casa Grande High School.

“He could go 4-for-4 one day and 0-for-4 the next and either way, he’d still have that ‘HK’ smile,” said Casa Grande baseball coach Paul Maytorena.

In 2021, Klemenok transferred to San Diego State. He graduated in May with a degree in business administration, and went to work as a financial analyst at a realty company.

He is a beloved son and sibling, and a budding martial artist who several weeks ago earned his blue belt in jujitsu.

“It’s just kind of mind-blowing,” said Nik Kamages, a pitcher at Sonoma State University who has known Klemenok since middle school. He recalled his friend as a person with an easy smile and contagious laugh, “an all-around, stand-up, great guy.”

“He was a fantastic young guy, and a really good teammate,” agreed Damon Neidlinger, manager of the baseball team at Santa Rosa Junior College. Before transferring to San Diego State in 2021, Klemenok played three seasons for the Bear Cubs, two of those campaigns shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Klemenok, he said, was one of the players that “stayed the course” during the pandemic, part of a group that got together to lift weights and take batting practice on their own.

“He loved the game. He was a very hard worker. And he was in very good shape.”

A disciplined weightlifter, Klemenok was formidably sculpted. “He was an animal,” said Greg McIntyre, a martial arts instructor at Victory MMA and Fitness, the San Diego gym where Klemenok worked out.

With over 1,000 members, the gym isn’t particularly “intimate,” said McIntyre. “But Hayden was one of the most well-known guys on the jujitsu mat. Everyone liked him a lot.”

McIntyre was struck by how quickly Klemenok learned. “He caught on quick, learned the moves, drilled them, and put them into practice in the tournament.

“He was just one of those guys you love to have around. He wasn’t super emphatic, maybe a little on the stoic side. But he always had a smile on his face. He was very kind and helpful to everybody.

“He would’ve gone far at anything he tried to do. That’s what it seemed like.”

Dangerous waters

Two days after the accident, on July 4, Yosemite National Park issued a missing person alert for Klemenok, describing what he was wearing that day and asking for help from anyone who might have seen him in that area.

Park officials hoped that other hikers might notice something to help them find Klemenok. But no glimpse of him was reported.

With warning signs posted around the park, Klemenok knew the dangers as well as anyone. But according to Michelle Klemenok, speaking to the Chronicle, at Chilnualna Creek, under current conditions, it only takes one slip to be lost to the water.

“The rocks are slick and from the rushing water, everything’s been worn away," she said. ”There are no branches … nothing to grab onto.“

“Caution,” declared Yosemite’s official website on Monday. “Rivers and creeks are surprisingly swift, cold, and dangerous. Stay away from rocks adjacent to rivers; wet rock is extremely slick. Most people who drown did not intend to get into the water.”

According to park officials, as of June 1, snowpack in the Merced River basin was 346% of average for this time of year. Snowpack in the Tuolumne River basin was 257% of average.

Back in Petaluma, an online fundraiser for the Klemenok family had raised more than $63,000 as of Tuesday afternoon. The account, set up by Petaluma resident Connie Zell, a friend and coworker of Michelle Klemenok, had received an “outpouring of love, support, prayers, and generous donations,” according to Zell.

In her online post, McKinnie also thanked the community for its love and support, and said the family “will remain in touch about memorial service plans.”

“Hayden’s existence was and still is so widespread and impactful,” she wrote, adding that “We welcome any memories, pictures and videos you are open to sharing with us so we can share in part with all the joy Hayden brought to this world.”

“We will never stop loving our Hayden, and today, are finally able to say we are all leaving Yosemite ‘together.’”