Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Please help for missing hikers

posted October 20, 2004 08:47 PM Leo and anyone else out there, yes my brother is part of a 4 person group that is missing, due back on sunday the 17th. I'm told there is another group of 3 and a single also missing. Forest service and others have launched a significant search today, no success, poor weather etc. hampering efforts. If any of the recent posts about people that were up on Whitney this last weekend read this and could either contact me or better yet the forest service to aid in any way with info about who they may have seen during their trip, it would be GREATLY appreciated.
My brother is with one other man and 2 women who would have been looking to possibly summit on sat16 or sun17, They are not seasoned winter experienced hikers. I,Don't have a lot of info as to their route,but they may have caught your attention for one reason or another. Please notify someone if you have ANYTHING that might help the search.

Steve, unfortunately I wasn't up there this weekend. Try posting specific info. on the recent posts began by "p2plaptop" & "1kayaker": It seems some folks on those posts made it up there this weekend.

In regards to the missing hikers, myself and 3 friends were briefly at base camp on Sunday evening and at the ridge Monday afternoon. Due to time constraints and the incoming storm, we turned around at 2 pm and went down the mountain. Because of the low volume of hikers, I could probably give you a description of everyone who was above 10,000 ft between Sunday (17th) afternoon and Monday (18th) evening. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

I am not sure when and where they would have been there, I am not familiar with the area. But as I said there were four of them, two women, two men, I expect they made it to the 12K foot level and not sure which day but they were expected to summit on Saturday. Realistically they probably did not make it that far because of weather and altitude. They could have tried to come down and got off trail.

I don't know what color tent they had, is it common practice to pitch your tent, summit and then return to tent? Would they have left the tent at the base camp? Email me directly if that would be easier at
oregonshanks@finercabinetry.com, thanks for any help you can give. Do you want descriptions of the individuals? thanks, steve

I am also a family member of one of these 4 missing hikers. I have their itinerary here:
Thu 10/14 - Hiked 7 miles from Horseshoe Meadow past Cottonwood Lakes basin. Setup camp at New Army Pass. Fri 10/15 - Hike to Sky Blue Lake and camp. Sat 10/16 - Hike 10 miles to Trail Camp in Whitney Zone, hike to TrailCrest and leave packs. Hike to Summit, then return to TrailCrest to get packs and go back to Trail Camp. Sun 10/17 - Hike our back to Whitney Portal. Tony Smith is the hiker I know - he has a 4 person Mustard Yellow NorthFace tent and an orange and blue sleeping bag - he has no jacket. He is about 5'10" medium build, 42. He is with Paul who has a dark complexion, beard and mustache. He is with two women that I cannot describe. Please let me know if you have seen this group according to this itinerary. Or better yet the forest rangers - they are supposed to continue searching today now that it is clear. My mother and Tony's family are in Lone Pine right now. I can reach them if you have information. My phone is 407-586-0407.

Campers:

This search is still going as of 0800 10/21/04 for the Smith party. We're able to finally fly today. Would those of you who saw people in the higher elevation Whitney area on 10/15 through 10/17 -- especially if you were West of the Crest -- please contact the National Park Service Incident Command direct by phone and as soon as you can. We need to interview people to get an idea of people in the area.

We also have another search in Kings Canyon Park between Lamark Col, down the John Muir Trail (PCT) to Bishop Pass and South Lake. Anyone hiking in that area after Thursday 10/13, please contact us at the number below.

Call Erika Jostad or George Durkee at 559-565-3117 and leave a message with your return phone number. This is the main search command and coordinating search efforts in Sequoia Park where we think the party is.

Thanks!

George Durkee
Park Ranger, Kings Canyon NP

That's a much longer route to Mount Whitney and means that there's a lot more territory to be searched. They could be as far west as Crabtree Meadow. Assuming they reached that point, if they then decided to turn back they would have two options. They could either go back the way they came (which could have led to difficulty around New Army Pass) or they could try to head up over trail crest in an effort to get on the main Whitney trail back down to the portal. Either way, new snow accumulation would likely have been a problem. Snow Saturday night likely reduced visibility which could have made it easy to get dissoriented. They could even be farther to the south. If they started to backtrack the way the came, they could have decided it would be safer to go back over Cottonwood Pass instead of New Army or Old Army Pass. Given the heavier snow along the Crest, they're probably still on the backside to the West of the Sierra Crest. Hopefully with SAR in the air today they'll be spotted.

Thanks to all that contributed to this thread. My brother's group of 4 has been found and transported safely down the mountain. I will hold out hopeful thoughts for the others that are still missing in the region.