High Sierra Topix

I have some horrible news to convey to all:

Our member and friend to many here on HST, Vaca Russ, passed away suddenly from a medical event, while out on a trip to climb Mt.Tom this past weekend on the way up to Horton Lake, I will not be going into any particulars of this incident, on forum or off.

Russ was a good man, he participated in two of our recovery missions in the Mammoth region looking for evidence in the Greene case, he was willing to use his vacation time, money, and effort for someone he never even met, that tells you a lot about his character. He also had a wonderful sense of humor.

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He enjoyed climbing, and was chipping away at the Ogul list, as you can read, and enjoy, in the Climbing Section.

Those of you who were fortunate enough to meet this wonder man, please add your memories and stories that you shared with him here.

Peace my mountain brother, you will be missed, our souls will meet once again in the Sierra.

Bummer. RIP. Definitely going to be missed.

Oh damn, he was one of the good ones. And yes, he will most certainly be missed.

Terrible news.

We were just talking about Vaca Russ this past weekend! I was remembering the beautiful salmon-and-fruit spread he brought up to HST'ers involved in the Matthew Greene search in 2014. And it turns out that this past weekend, we were hiking not too far from Russ as the Clark's Nutcracker flies.

Russ was my hiking partner on Year 1, Day 1 of our search for Matthew. The two of us went up to the Clyde approach to Ritter's East Glacier. Russ came back for the second search in 2015 and we got to continue all of our conversation from the year before. I will find a photo to post.

Thank you Russ for your heart, your gift of conversation, your incisive take on the world, and your mountain companionship. We'll miss you around here.

- Elizabeth

How very sad. I know Russ made many numerous positive contributions here and I will miss his posts.

That's awful! I learned lots from Russ as I also enjoy fishing and I will think of him every time I pull in a trout on a panther martin in the backcountry we all love so much. He will be greatly missed but I'm sure very fondly remembered.

Oh man.
I remember on the first search he ended up with a mylar balloon. I believe he said he has found at least one on every trip. During the second search, I found a mylar balloon and brought it back to camp, then rocked it down just for him.

RIP Russ.

Russ below Ritter and Banner, 2014

I had the opportunity to work in the same factory with Russ for the past 29 years. Russ was knowledgeable on many fronts - science, technology, nature.
Russ had lately been the capital projects manager and got a lot of money moved. Russ also calibrated flow meters and level indicators. He could tell you about ion exchanges and chemical reactions as well as one job he had in the Navy...running a nuclear reactor. Russ was old school with great work ethics and give him a job, he got it done. Russ was 55 almost 56 and in real good shape. He would put on a backpack and fill it with rocks, climbing the local hills for practice and conditioning for the next big climb. As a friend and Colleage we miss you Russ - thanks for the opportunity to have known you and called you friend.

Bob Brown

RIP Russ.