Whether the Hourglass Cave man was a regular visitor to this part of the Rockies, or whether his journey into the cave was a single unusual event in a life otherwise lived at lower elevation, cannot be determined from the available evidence.

The bones are there.

The evidence of torch use is there.

The rest of his story — where he came from, where his community lived, what had brought him to this part of the mountains — is not in the cave.

Accident, Exploration, Or Something Else

Why was he there?

This question sits at the center of the Hourglass Cave story, and it sits there unresolved.

Researchers who have studied the site have proposed several categories of explanation, none of which can be confirmed or ruled out with the available evidence, and all of which deserve consideration.