Overdue Hiker - Do You Have Any Info?

[John Harper]

Yes, they have been using helicopters. As far as infrared imaging, who knows, but entirely possible.

John

[AlmostThere]

Helos don't fly at night in the mountains. Not safe.

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[BrianF]

Everyone should take the time to carefully go through the many updates and the map that SEKI has posted (link in red at the top of the page). They did have a helo with Infrared sensing early on. The Lakes in green are within the search area and they repeatedly have said they are concentrating teams on the Pinchot pass area, as well as Taboose and Split mountain. Since about Thursday last week they have had a minimum of 30 people on the ground. On Sat. they had 9 ground teams, by Mon. they had 13 teams and 45 searchers as well as dogs. I am sure they are covering alot of ground, especially with helicopter insertion.
From experience, I can tell you they have a sense of urgency, especially with weather likely on Thursday, if it snows it will further cover any potential clues and hamper any efforts. As AlmostThere says these are all trained professionals and they have all the same info we have and a large crew, so I am sure they are covering the obvious areas, probably more than once.

[Electra]

I have been gone in Yosemite the last few days but have been thinking about Larry a lot and sending out good thoughts to him constantly. I feel the urge as well to do something and figure out how to 'add value' to the search.

After reading thru all the posts, looking at the search maps and other maps and doing some basic research as well as thinking about personal late season trips and guiding realities/psychographs (alright i am getting geeky technical..), my gut says that experienced hikers like us will crest the pass and 'if' feeling a bit haggard (an assumption based on what little we know) OR worried about weather will fall back on a more obvious destination. In this case, Bench Lake area and Arrow Peak/Ridge. Though Larry seeks the less traveled areas, at this time of year, more popular areas like Bench are a welcome destination and good fall back location. This area just beckons you as you descend from the pass. A strong hiker could get out from Bench area in one day so Larry could have stayed in this general area for two nights (sat and sun night), meaning he woke up monday morning to the weather.

With all this said, checking around arrow peak, along the river, small lakes around bench, upper reaches of muro makes sense....If he decided to descend the muro on monday, then an injury may have happened along the way...I am just trying to think like a hiker based on what I know while also assuming the best occurred until the weather hit.

Stay strong Larry!!!

And THANK YOU SAR!!!

[DP Hiker]

Larry left an itinerary with his partner. I would assume that he would veer off of it if anything caught his interest. He would most likely use it as a general plan. I doubt that the NPS has much in the way of permit information. The itinerary they published would be the thing to go on but as I said, Larry would go where something caught his interest with out a second thought in my opinion.

[caveman]

Mike and I are in agreement with DP Hiker. We think Larry would be more on the wandering side than the tightly structured itinerary side. Keep in mind the trips we shared with him we're all structured group trips. We required everyone in our group to get from planned basecamp to basecamp, before venturing off. We do not have much reference to what he would do on a solo backpack. We can only guess based on our experience with him. Mike comments "Knowing Larry, I think he wanders. I am not 100% sure since he has always been Perfect Pace and often on some of the grueling backpacks, he doesn't have time to wander since we are covering so many miles. On the HST, when we had minimal miles he explored many side trips and he did that too on Sheep's Canyon. I get the sense he has some area that he figures out that he wants to check out, before hand. But may change his mind as he goes along." DP Hiker has been on 9 Perfect Pace trips with Larry. Mike has been on 16 with Larry. I have been on 8 with Larry. Either DP Hiker, Mike, or myself have led those trips.

[frediver]

I had a long winded post and lost it, just as well!
In short, do they search or use spotter at night?
It seems to me at this point the best chance for a
signal to be seen will be at night if you are still
expecting Larry to be able to signal.

[AlmostThere]

My team searches at night for a number of reasons. Most teams do not. In my experience the national park service does not conduct night searches, tho as always there are exceptions.

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[caveman]

I'm not sure if this has been suggested yet (which may be stating the obvious), but if you go to this link:

search.php?author_id=55&sr=posts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

it gives all the posts that Larry made on HST which is 890 total. It holds some valuable insight on the trips he has been on, some of the peaks and passes he has already climbed, the routes he has taken, his views, his stories, etc. I noticed for instance one his posts was in response to the question "What is your route planning like?" His reply was

"I hardly plan at all. There, someone had to say it.

I always have at least a rough itinerary in mind, but I often change my mind part-way through. Once I went over Lamarck Col, with the idea of eventually ending up at South Lake. After climbing Mt. Spencer, I decided to head the other way on the JMT, and ended up back at North Lake via Gemini, Feather and Puppet Passes. It was one of my favorite trips. Most of my trips are solo, and I never reserve permits in advance, so I don't even do that part of the planning. There's nothing like the freedom of the wilderness."

I notice his other posts describes his previous Taboose trips. One post suggests to me he has climbed Split before. And this I got just scanning the first 100 or so. There is a wealth of information there to help piece clues together.

[caveman]

On a lighter note, I had a tearful smile when I discovered a post he made about me in response to a thread on barefoot hiking,

"A hiking group I sometimes join did the Benson Lake loop 2 years ago, and the leader hiked the entire thing barefoot. Actually, to be fair, he did put on "five fingers" thingies for a few short, particularly rocky stretches. He did have a slightly unpleasant time with some of the rockiest downhill stretches, but no more than I did (on account of my knees). He's also run marathons barefoot.

So it can be done. It will never be done by me."

Where are you Larry? Hang in there.