Official INYO-SEKI SAR / Overdue Hiker (Resolved)

[maverick]

Great LAhiker, will pass this on.

[twentymilehike]

Hi all,
I just saw this missing persons report on the SEKI instagram page. It's late now, but I can give the number a call tomorrow in addition to this post, if you think I should.

My boyfriend and I were hiking from South Lake toward Bishop Pass starting at about 2:30 pm on Saturday, 10/15. We turned around at about 4:30 pm, I think just before Saddlerock lake. It was clear, but windy and getting quite cold -- if I recall correctly the temp reading on the GPS watch was in the low to mid 40s. Low, fast moving clouds were moving in west of us very quickly. I had thin fleece gloves on and my fingers were pretty numb.

On the way up we passed mostly day hikers headed back to the trailhead, no one going in our direction, and only a couple groups of backpackers: one group camping about 2 miles from the trail head; one group (2 or 3 maybe?) that were probably about a mile or so from the trailhead headed back, and at our turn around point, I saw someone up ahead (maybe a quarter mile?) wearing what looked like a red puffy. I thought there might have been two people, but only recall noting the red jacket of one. Anyhow, I thought this person was moving toward us, but we were stopped for a while and they never passed. I was thinking that maybe I'd missed them when they went by, but my boyfriend said her never saw them, so there was definitely someone up ahead of us that either came back out after dark, or stayed below the pass that night. We didn't see anyone other than the group camping on the way out and we got back probably at about 6:00 pm.

I have a photo I took next to Long Lake with a 3:24 pm time stamp. It might take me a minute, but I'll see if I can't figure out how to post it. It looks really nice out, but the weather started to rolling about an hour or so later. Full clouds by the time we made it back to the trailhead.

I'm sorry I didn't see this sooner! I hope at least some of this can be useful in the search.
Best wishes to all involved.

[twentymilehike]

Here's the photo of Long Lake that I mentioned in my original post:

Long Lake, by twentymilehike, on Flickr

[maverick]

Thank you very much for taking the time to post this info and photo TMG. SAR now has pretty much gotten verifacation on the weather conditions at the time of the storm.

[gdurkee]

Hi All. I appreciate everyone's weather & condition observations. From weather data and a few JMT hikers going through on the west side, it confirms conditions on Saturday (very high winds and, in the search area, some prcip though not major) and Sunday (serous prcip/snow and extreme winds) west of the crest. Mammoth Mountain anemometer (11,000') showed sustained gusts of over 100mph after 1PM (maxed at 116mph). Because of incoming weather, searchers came out Saturday night but teams will return if conditions allow today or tomorrow. Weather, though, is again going to limit both ground and air search later this week.

I'm unable to post the search maps right now but this has been an incredibly extensive search with very good ground coverage on both the east side and west side of Bishop Pass. Sunday we (NPS) went over each section looking for holes in our search pattern. Areas were identified for follow up. I'll try to get permission to post a coverage map (tracklogs of searchers). It gives a really good visual of what goes into a search. Most of the ground teams are volunteers from a number of California county search and rescue teams who spend countless hours in training in addition to being available to show up with incidents like this occur. Also involved are Yosemite SAR and their helicopter as well as a National Guard Chinook. Darned impressive effort & people involved!

Anyway, thanks to everyone for your continued observations and first-hand accounts. I'll update here as I can.

George Durkee
NPS Sequoia Kings SAR

[maverick]

Here is the attached search area map requested from SEKI SAR.

[maverick]

Does anyone know whether there are caves located in the Barrett Lakes and/or Dusy Basin areas? The Facebook poster below mentioned that both basins have some, this could explain why SAR has not found any signs of Robert or his equipment with their ground or air searches.


Delinda Briggs:

I can't stop thinking about Mr. Woodie and his nice friends and family I've met while they search for him. So, I have been asking around and probing local friends for any info or ideas of where to look. One friend who studied frogs up there mentioned that there are a lot of caves in the Dusy basin Barret Lakes region and that he might have retreated to a cave for the storm??? She said Roland Knapp (in Lee Vining) knows the area even better...I hope this helps..

[rlown]

http://knapplab.msi.ucsb.edu/contact/contact.html

Contact Information

Mailing Address

Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory
University of California
1016 Mt. Morrison Road
Mammoth Lakes, CA 93546

Phone and E-mail

Office phone: (760) 647-0034
Email: knapp@lifesci.ucsb.edu

Maybe call him?

[rlown]

called his number.. got vmail. asked for maps and particularly about the caves..

[maverick]

Thanks Russ.