The mother of missing Irishman Cian McLaughlin is continuing the search for her son in Wyoming.
The 27-year-old Dubliner was last seen in Grand Teton National Park in the US state on June 8.
Fears for the young man's safety grew after he did not report for work at a resort in Jackson, Wyoming, two days later.
As part of efforts to locate him, multiple search and rescue dog teams probed the Teton backcountry and some of these efforts included navigating steep, technical terrain in hazardous areas.
Dozens of helicopter search missions were conducted but efforts to locate Cian were scaled back a few weeks after he went missing.
Park rangers said they would shift tactics to a "continuous, but limited mode" and that staff would continue to patrol the backcountry and investigate new leads.
Cian's family are continuing to search for him in the US.
His mother Grainne described hearing the terrible news that two days after arriving in the US, rangers told her the search would be a recovery operation.
"I went through a huge amount of grief at that time. We arrived on June 17 and pretty much two days later we were told this was a recovery operation. That was really hard,” she told RTE News.
"This is not a rescue, it is a recovery, but I'd like to bring him home. I know he is up there somewhere."
She described her son as "a very outgoing guy" who "loved the outdoors" and was "well-versed in the mountains".
As he has dual US-Irish citizenship, he was able to work in the US for the past two years as a snowboard instructor and barman.
"If you met Cian he'd stop and have a chat. He was loved by all his friends. He had a lot of friends in Ireland and in the US. He was living the life," Ms McLaughlin said.
"I am thinking of Cian at every moment and trying to connect with him and my hope is to bring him home, to have some resolution and bring him home."
Cian's uncle Colm O'Higgins also appealed to the public for information. It comes after the family launched a social media campaign, #FindCian, in a bid to locate the young man.
He told RTE: "Knowing Cian as being very sociable and chatty, he definitely would have talked to people and so someone may remember having seen him on the trail.
"Our appeal is to anybody who was in the park around June 8 and who may have taken photos.
"We are asking them to have a look at their pictures and see if there is someone in the background. They can share them with us at bringcianhome@gmail.com or the park rangers.”
A GoFundMe campaign to help the McLaughlin family with costs relating to the search operation has raised almost €50,000 to date.
