Overdue Hiker - Do You Have Any Info?

Use this forum to stay informed on missing persons alerts, active SAR's and unfortunate hiker accidents we can all hopefully learn from. Any information you may have on a missing person, including first hand weather related information or any other insight (however little) may prove to be critical information to Law Enforcement / SAR in locating the person in question.
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austex
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Re: Overdue Hiker - Do You Have Any Info?

Post by austex »

I just posted it on the Rock Creek Board
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TehipiteTom
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Re: Overdue Hiker - Do You Have Any Info?

Post by TehipiteTom »

This is scary stuff, and I can only imagine what Larry's family is going through. Here's hoping for his safe return.
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lostcoyote
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Re: Overdue Hiker - Do You Have Any Info?

Post by lostcoyote »

mshields wrote:"Day 2 was on the JMT. Here was the first detour. I had been considering taking CG's suggested route of Upper Basin Crossing (UBC), to get into Amphitheater Lakes basin, but the weather looked very iffy. I also had hoped to climb Split Mountain, but also passed on that because of the weather. Exploring later in my trip, I found out this is what I missed out on, on the west side of UBC. [image] Uh...maybe next time (maybe not!)"

Is there a possibility he may have headed towards the Amphitheater Lakes Basin?
this should be forwarded to the SEKI search & rescue effors - just in case he decided to explore the entry into amphitheater basin on one of his days before the storm came in.

***** maverick, what would be the most likely "pass" to get over that ridgeline east of frozen lake pass into upper amphitheater? i sort of remember you talking about the route way way back.

aznother thing - i got caught in the october 2009 storm. it rained/snowed 8 inches where i hunkered down at big arroyo cabin. when the storm broke, i headed out over kawaeh gap. there was 1.5 feet of new snow and it was very slow going as near the pass, i was punching through almost every step. i camped on the south side above precipice lake and next morning, the soft snow from the previous day had frozen to become very icy. i had to be very careful down to precipice kicking in each heel of my steps as not to slip. having said that....

if i was larry, i would have hunkered down in thne woods in lower upperbasin or even head to bench lake and ride things out. possibly wait for the snow to melt back if possible.... but the daytime temps are only 30 so maybe the meltback is not happening. i'm sure SEKI has searched that out by now.

or he could have made the effort to get out over taboose (most logical way out) but if he did encounter these icy conditions, there is one section on the east side of the pass that's on a good slope and he could slip snd end up downhill from the trail if injured. that upper section should have also been checked out.

another long shot option would be to head south if he did explore pinchot as stated.... and he'd be getting out by going down the JMT to lower elevations and getting out to cedar grove.

hope he's OK and on his way out... or if injured, can do what he can to get noticed.
wishing for the best.
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Re: Overdue Hiker - Do You Have Any Info?

Post by cmon4day »

This is starting to get worrisome. Hi truly hope Larry is OK. The SAR guys/gals will not give up so I am confident he will be found. Thoughts and prayers to Larry and his family. Will keep watching this thread for details.

Be safe out there.
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Re: Overdue Hiker - Do You Have Any Info?

Post by maverick »

Officer in charge called last night for more info, still no signs, like the update indicates.
What is weird that there has been no sighting of the tent which could mean a couple of things.

1. He was moving from one location to another when some thing happened. This could be anywhere from after the meeting with Freestone (2 miles in from the trailhead) or along the JMT while going to Split, Pinchot or other destination. He would not attempt any summit with a full pack which includes his tent. We all would base camp and then attempt to summit, unless he stashed his pack and food, seeing a pack is more difficult than a tent.

2. Could he have gone down the Muro Blanco? It would have added a lot of miles going down, but with a lot of snow/water mix which would have its own dangers. Larry being experienced knew the basic's of survival, and staying put till found is one of them.
Weather was to turn bad Tuesday so Larry had to be aware of the incoming storm and so his plan to exit Monday. Which then brings into question any of the bail attempts
because the bad weather had not arrived yet, so why change the exit route?

Keep adding in your thoughts people SAR is reading, we all think like backpackers/hikers here, no scenario is out of the question!

Lost Coyote - Here is that pass: HST Map Upper Basin Crossing
More info on the pass here: http://www.highsierratopix.com/communit ... =31&t=8326" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Professional Sierra Landscape Photographer

I don't give out specific route information, my belief is that it takes away from the whole adventure spirit of a trip, if you need every inch planned out, you'll have to get that from someone else.

Have a safer backcountry experience by using the HST ReConn Form 2.0, named after Larry Conn, a HST member: http://reconn.org
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Re: Overdue Hiker - Do You Have Any Info?

Post by Wandering Daisy »

Well, a few more thoughts - just ideas.

It is true that you cannot search everywhere but you should not limit search to only those places where one would likely be IF one were logical. As chronicled in "Deep Survival", people who get lost or hypothermic often do illogical things.

If trying to get back to a trailhead in white-out conditions, it is really easy to go in the wrong direction once up on Taboose pass - could even go over the pass and then get turned around and return to the west side. The immediate area of Taboose Pass may be a good place for an intensive search.

I pretty much did that route a few years back - in Taboose, check out Cardinal Lake, climb Split Mtn, hike off-trail to see all the little cirques and lakes west of the trail, then to Bench Lake, and out -- all in 4 days. You can cover a lot of miles quickly off-trail in that area. However, given that snow was already on the ground and possibly icy conditions, it does not seem to me that going over a high steep pass and getting out of the Upper Basin via an off-trail route would be something easy to do -more likely you would turn back due to poor conditions.
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Re: Overdue Hiker - Do You Have Any Info?

Post by KathyW »

I was thinking about this some more. If he did head north on the JMT to Split Mountain, it is possible he decided to drop down over the crest north of the summit of Split to Red Lake and go out. It is confusing on where to drop down from the crest to get down to Red Lake, and I have heard of a number of people ending up in the Tinemaha Creek drainage instead of down by Red Lake and the Red Lake drainage. On the way up from Red Lake, we marked the spot pretty good where we hit the Crest, and we were glad we did on the way down because it did look like it would be easy to drop down into the drainage to the north by mistake. When we were up there, a climber did just that and his partners were looking for him - he ended up coming out all the way to the road along Tinemaha Creek.
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Re: Overdue Hiker - Do You Have Any Info?

Post by maverick »

Pinchot and Wynne where discussed last night with SAR as was the area around Bolton Brown which Larry was thinking of doing from Birch Lake to Amph with friend next year and could have gone to the area to scope out the possibilities.
Professional Sierra Landscape Photographer

I don't give out specific route information, my belief is that it takes away from the whole adventure spirit of a trip, if you need every inch planned out, you'll have to get that from someone else.

Have a safer backcountry experience by using the HST ReConn Form 2.0, named after Larry Conn, a HST member: http://reconn.org
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Re: Overdue Hiker - Do You Have Any Info?

Post by SSSdave »

Some analysis is worthwhile at this point.

-------------------------
This is what Claus said, "He went in on the Taboose Pass trail. His tentative itinerary was to head up, generally, along the Muir trail toward Mather Pass and possibly climb Split Mt. Then he planned to head back toward Pinchot Pass and explore some of the creeks in that area."

and freestone, "I ran into Larry last Friday at approximately 10:30 AM on the Taboose trail, about two miles from the trailhead. We spoke briefly and he mentioned that he was going to explore the area around Pinchot area, but made no mention of Split Mountain. He said he only had four days, but looked well equiped..."
-------------------------

I expected to read he stumbled out the last couple days after waiting for at least some of the snows to melt off or following the South Fork of the Kings River down to Roads End. That did not happen. So three unfortunate primary possibilities remain.

1) He was injured bagging a peak before the storm hit.

2) He was not injured climbing but got into trouble due to inadequate gear during the storm.

3) He is not injured but is stuck in a steep location where snows have made escape too dangerous to attempt and is hoping to see a helicopter.

If he was just going to be out 4 days, even if he did not expect a storm, I doubt he would have gone into Lakes Basin, Dumbell Lakes Basin, Amphitheatre Lakes Basin, north over Mather Pass, or south over Pinchot Pass especially beyond Cedric Wright. Oh he had enough time to reach those areas but would only have done so if he had another day to actually peakbag something significant that would have been a real stretch on a 4 day trip. And the comments above support that. No his intent was more likely within striking range of Taboose.

Freestone mentioned he was well equipped. However the usual mindset of many summer peakbaggers making multi k approaches and ascents is to go light and outside of sleeping in a bag at night, count on activity to keep oneself warm. So I'd suspect that did not include winter foul weather gear. He heard a storm was coming sometime after the weekend but for whatever reason may have gambled it could not come sooner. If he was ok, and in Upper Basin, the Marjorie area, or Bench, the obvious thing to do once the snow began would have been to escape over Taboose or drop down in the canyon where the forest is more dense and there would be areas below dense trees with little snow or wind and a lot of wood to make fires with. He may instead got set up in one of the headwater basins and benches and after the storm came earlier than he expected, just stayed there. The storm hit the south SF Bay Area about midnight Sunday then that area of the Sierra snow began falling at sunrise. I know that to be the situation because it shows that on the nearby Bishop Pass CDEC site:

http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/quer ... an=12hours" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That also shows over a foot of snow fell at Bishop Pass by sunset Monday, then slacked off, and did not melt off at all during following days. One reason playing around in these above 10k areas at this time of year when storms are possible is rather dangerous. Lower down one can get away with expecting some melt off but not up high.

So if snow started then and he was in escape range, of Taboose at sunrise, I'd find it difficult to imagine someone with his experience would choose not to start rambling towards the pass as soon as dawn allowed even if wind was high and visibility was unpleasant. It basically blows one eastward which at ones back actually makes travel faster. Just a HUGE danger of being caught up there once snow depths piled up. So that tends to make 1) more likely. But maybe his clothing was too light and after heading towards the pass, after a half hour decided he was becoming way too cold so bailed down into the canyon. But then why hasn't he appeared since? I'd expect by this time that helicopters have been looking for tracks which are of course highly noticeable.

I've been a skiing enthusiast for three decades and am especially fond of powder skiing during storms at resorts. When one is riding up on lifts with winds 40mph with temps 20F degrees, one readily considers how easily a person could freeze to death in short order if a lift shut down. Or if one got stuck in some tree well. Even with heavy duty ski clothing, if one is not moving, cold has a horrible way of taking over. Something mountaineers learn very quickly.
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Re: Overdue Hiker - Do You Have Any Info?

Post by gdurkee »

Hi all:

I'm not in any way involved in the search and only heard about it yesterday. I notice that the flyer and information from sequoia kings asks you to call if you saw him or have information. Just to be clear, if anyone was even in the area between the time he started the trip and now -- and I'd say anywhere between Bishop Pass, Taboose, Sawmill to Kearsarge to Cedar Grove, even the Monarch to Simpson -- then I'd call the park to give your exact route; what the conditions were; tracks noticed (or their absence) on the trail etc. Negative information (not seeing him or tracks) is almost as important as positive sightings.

Most of the forum people seem aware of this search, but it would be helpful to call friends and find out anyone in the greater search area. Also, a lot of people this time of year don't get permits so it's often everyone here who has a better idea of who's out there.

Thanks,

George
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