High Sierra Topix

Fellow Members,

Our request for the quotas to be waived has been held up by governmental bureaucracy and/or the lack of will/spine to proceed up the chain of command.
The phrase "wilderness character being disturbed" is being used as the main reason/excuse not to proceed. We have addressed this issue directly by being willing to spend almost $2000 to get our food over Taboose Pass and close to the Taboose Pass Trail/JMT junction so that we could all get over the pass that same day with each team member continuing on to their assigned basecamps in different sections of the search area well outside of the required 1/4 mile for groups over 10 (neither search team will be over 8).
The main slap in the face is that there will be no major SAR effort for Larry conducted in July, but a few (2-3) qualified individuals, yet to be recruited, would search for clues, walking the trails talking to people. No SAR, no helicopters, no large group of searchers.

When Randy Morgenson went missing, that following year there was a major SAR effort for him, which included a couple of helicopters, Yosemite climbing SAR, and all the backcountry rangers. Now I understand that because of the federal budget cuts things are tight, and that Randy was one of theirs, but Larry is one of ours! Claus, Alexander, and his family & friends deserve to get
resolution if possible by our search effort, especially with SEKI not being able to commit the manpower or helicopters for a second legitimate effort.We never planned or wanted to get politicians or the media involved, but instead made an effort to work within all the park regulations by exactly keeping the wilderness character and environmental impact in the forefront at all times, regretfully the NPS & Inyo NF stance on this minor issue of waiving the quotas for a day will take us down this very avenue.
When and if you are called to write your representatives, I hope you will rally with us to help make a stand for this noble cause and humanitarian effort for one of our own HST members Larry Conn, who was a father, a partner, a son, a friend to many!
Thanks you for your patience as we continue to try to resolve this issue! Mav

PS. If anyone has any political or media connections please contact me via PM.
PS. Our secondary backup plan will proceed as planned.

Fellow Members and Citizens of this Great State of California (We the People),

We have folks who are putting things in motion in Washington as we speak, please
do your part by contacting your local representatives and making your voices heard!

Henry Waxman is Larry's/Claus's representative, and if you live in LA please contact
him at: https://waxman.house.gov/contact-me" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The rest of you outside of this area can look up you local representatives here
and contact them via e-mail: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Don't be silent, be part of the "Wave" for change!

PS. A HST member who PMed me today reminded me to get folks to use Facebook to
get the word out also.

Thought I would share this with everyone here on HST, including SEKI NP upper
chain of command, so we can all hear about what the lasting effects of this
tragedy is having, and what extended pain could/will be avoided or mitigated
by our search.

Getting in contact with Larry's brother David yesterday in Washington, with
Claus's help, learned that Larry's 89 year old mother has been devastated by
not only recently loosing her long time husband but then also losing her son Larry.
She, David, and many of Larry's friends on the east coast have been following
the developments here on HST from the very beginning (Oct). They would
like everyone to know that they appreciate all the efforts and kind words that
have been said about Larry. Our mobilization to put together a new search
effort to find Larry has brought his mother some hope and a renewed spirit.
Sometimes the good deeds of a few can be helpful to the souls of the many
in pain, our deeds here may not bring resolution to this situation but the very
action itself may.
If you cannot be involved with the search directly, please get involved indirectly
and be part of the "Wave" as mentioned in the prior post.
Let's try together to bring a little more sunshine and hope into a grieving
mother's life.
Thanks Mav

Would ask everyone here and all the folks that have been contacted up this point
that you also include when you writing you congress person that the federal budget
cuts are one of the main reasons for their not being an all out secondary SAR effort on
SEKI's behalf. Ask them to reallocate funds to the public lands, when missions like
this one gets scaled back and fire staffing gets cut by 1/3 - especially in a potentially
huge fire year like this one, we all need to speak up, these parks belong to all
of us.
Thank you. Mav

Have ask Eric Blehm author of "The Last Season" to join are cause and he
enthusiastically said yes, and will do what ever he can to help and spread the word.

Would ask those who are writing letters in support of our cause from today's
date on, please direct them towards the 2 persons listed below:

SEKI NP Superintendent:
Woody Smeck
47050 Generals Highway
Three Rivers, CA 93271

Inyo National Forest Supervisor:
Ed Armenta
351 Pacu Lane, Suite 200
Bishop, CA 93514

These and other opinions in this thread do not necessarily reflect opinions of the HST Admin.

OUR SEARCH FOR LARRY HAS BEEN APPROVED BY SEKI NPS & INYO NF!!!!

Would like to say thank you, as would Larry's family, to everyone involved for
your efforts and support in getting our approval over the last few months.
Will post more details in a few days.

Can't comment on the particulars of how we got SEKI & Inyo on board with
our search, but can say it took knowing the right people, having folks in the
park/forest system who cared and were effected by this tragedy as much
as we were, putting the appropriate pressure on the right folks, having Eric's
blessing to use HST, being very persistent, and extremely patient. Glad we
made the decision to start this whole process back in Jan.

We still are in the need for volunteers to join our search effort.

A little about the search effort:

SEKI will have 2 rangers (one is a HST member ) stationed at Bench Lake
starting in June for up to 60 days for the purpose of looking for Larry. There
may be occasional helo support/help also.
Will be working with SEKI SAR who will supply me with updated info on the
areas searched by the rangers stationed at Bench Lake before our search so
hopefully we can narrow our search perimeters if nothing is found by the time
of our search, if Larry is found there will be no search effort.
We have been allowed to search in SEKI and pass through Inyo NF, but we must
follow all the park/forest regulations such as groups larger than 10 must camp
1/4 mile from each other, ascend toward the pass in groups no larger than
10, also it will be my responsibility to enforce these/all rules, the conduct of
our members, and ensure the safety of our search members as much as possible.
We will have an Alpha, Bravo and Charlie team (depending on final counts) based
in specific, assigned areas, from where each team will conduct their daily searches
from Wed thru Sat.
Their will be one more team (Delta) made up of members with a lot of crosscountry/
climbing experience, led by myself, that will be searching the more difficult
crosscountry routes that Larry may have taken.
Will have team leaders in place that will be in charge of each individual team
during the search, these people will be selected by their work experience (they
will have either a SAR, Ranger, Law Enforcement or Military background), an
abundance of wilderness/backcountry experience, and leadership qualities that
are needed to complete this mission safely and diligently.
Every searcher will be assigned to a team and notified before the actual search, you
will also be informed about your basecamp locations.
To reiterate, safety of each and every person involved in this search mission is my
number one concern.
Thanks Mav

PS Yes you guessed right, my background is military, guess the team names
gave it away.

- Permits of those who have volunteered so far have been sent off to Inyo today.

- Inyo & Sierra Madre are conducting searches outside of the Park this weekend
(Taboose Trail, Cardinal Mtn, Striped Mtn, Armstrong Canyon).

- SEKI is currently conducting their own search inside the Park.

Thank you to those of you who have sent PM's of encouragement and support
HST members and non members.
Would ask those of you who are still interested in coming but are unable to commit
at the moment because of work or family commitments please shoot me a PM so I know
how many possibles there may be.
We are still in the need for more searchers in our effort to find Larry,
hopefully some more of you will consider and join our mission to bring peace and closure
to the family. If you cannot participate but would like to help please get the word out,
and help us in the recruitment of more searchers.


Thanks,
Mav

Larry's Patagonia shoe (confirmed) was found at the top of Taboose Pass Trail,
northwest on the boundary line of SEKI-Inyo at the start of the County Line
route up to Cardinal Mtn.

Please do not go up looking for any evidence otherwise you will be interfering
with an official investigation. Will update everyone once this investigation has
concluded and the information is deemed releasable to the public.
Thank you for your continued patience. Mav