Official INYO-SEKI SAR / Overdue Hiker (Resolved)

[maverick]

SAR is requesting anyone who was in the area, at an altitude of 8000' or above, to please chime in on the conditions you experienced on Sat and/or Sun. Were the conditions windy, was there a wind chill, did your exposed skin get numb, how long did it take you to start to shiver if you were lightly dressed? Visibility, wind speed estimate and direction are all questions they need answers to, as soon as possible.

[ironmike]

Was exiting Blackcap Basin on that Saturday, and camped that night at Post Corral. Rain started around 6:30pm and continued off and on all night long and into the following day (when we hiked out wet to the Maxson trailhead at Courtright). Temps were mild at Post Corral Saturday night but gradually got cooler into the low 40's. Same with winds: light early Saturday night but picked up through the night and Sunday felt quite breezy and cool with light layers on. I know this is at least 15-20k away from Mr. Woodie's position but the weather was quite unexpected according to my meteorologist backpacking companion. We had anecdotal evidence that conditions were even worse (colder/windier) closer to the crest.

[maverick]

Thank you Mike for chiming in with that info.

[maverick]

SEKI NP:

Hi. Just a quick note. We are continuing the search and rescue for 74-year-old Robert "Bob" Woodie of Manhattan Beach, CA, in the wilderness of Kings Canyon National Park. Four dog teams from Yosemite Search and Rescue (YOSAR) are currently assisting our field teams.

Photos and b-roll of the dogs can be found here, along with some new photos from the field to give you a sense of some of the terrain the teams are searching: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nps_seki/ ... ertwoodie/

Our priority messaging for the public at this time is to get hikers who were in the search area since Thursday, October 13 to call us at 559-565-3117. Even someone who did not see Mr. Woodie is a helpful clue for our investigation. That helps us understand where he may have not been at a certain time. The search area includes Bishop Pass, Dusy Basin, Barrett Lakes, and the John Muir Trail/Pacific Crest Trail in LeConte Canyon.

Thank you for your help getting the word out!

[maverick]

We have someone trying to contact the owners, they closed down on the 18th, so they experinced the storm at 9290'. If you have any way of contacting them, please inquire about the weather conditions requested by SAR in the previous post and post that info here.
Thank you.

[LAhiker]

On Saturday, Oct 15th, two guys in Meetup group did a day hike in the South Lake/Bishop Pass Trail area from ~7:30am to 3pm. (They went to Chocolate Lakes.) Here are some pictures from their hike:
http://www.meetup.com/Bishop-Mountain-A ... /27348450/

From clothing and other clues, it can be seen that during their hike, it was chilly, breezy at times (note ripples on water), and partly cloudy with lots of sun. In the caption on the first picture, one of the hikers says there was a 40 degree difference between the temps on their hike and those in Bishop. But they report no sign of the weather worsening during their hike.

(One of the guys has been volunteering on the search with Inyo SAR, so he's already in touch with them.)

[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.