Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board 51 Yr Old Woman Missing on Baldy

ABC local news just reported that this woman started her day hike on Sat and is practicing for an upcoming hike in South America. The rescue attempt was stopped due to inclement weather. The news reports she is well acquainted with the Baldy area.
Does anybody know who she is? Did anybody see her yesterday?

Hope she's OK

Mark

I believe we saw her at the hut around 12:30 on Saturday. She did appear to have all the necessary gear to stay warm in the event she got injured. She was wearing a yellow Patagonia down jacket.

Glad to hear she looked prepared and is a capable outdoors person. All my friends keep e-mailing me because the discription matches mine.

Here is some more information:
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/inland_empire&id=7827311

By Elex Michaelson
MT. BALDY, ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST (KABC) -- The search continues for a hiker who went missing after going for a day hike in Mt. Baldy on Saturday.

The hiker has been identified as 49-year-old Michelle Yu from Los Angeles County. Authorities say she is an experienced hiker, and they fear that she may have injured herself.

A helicopter was brought in to search the area Saturday, until bad weather forced it to land.

Los Angeles and San Bernardino county sheriff's departments had 30 search team members on the ground looking for Yu.

The last possible sighting was around 6 p.m. Saturday when some hikers reported hearing a person yell from a canyon, but they were not sure if it was Yu.

Yu's car was found on Mt. Baldy and Falls roads.

Conditions were treacherous Sunday night with less than 15 feet of visibility and snowfall at the 8,000-foot level.

According to authorities, Yu often goes on day trips but not overnight trips. They believe she has some food with her and is wearing proper clothing.

Related Content
STORY: Experienced hiker missing on Mt. Baldy
"Since she has not come out and they say she knows this mountain and has not contacted her family, we're feeling that she's hurt and she's fallen in probably one of the canyons up here," said Jeffrey McDaniel with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

With weather permitting, sheriffs plan to launch search helicopters as soon as possible.

Authorities say Yu was training for an upcoming trip to South America.

(Copyright ©2010 KABC-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

Our heart and prayers need to be with her as SAR continues their effort. With as much money as we spend on gear (boots, crampons, backpacks…etc), an active SPOT account should be high on the priority list. Especially for those of us that go out solo. The cost becomes insignificant if you are ever put in this type of position!

It's a bright sunny day in the LA basin, so they should be able to get up there and find her today, if she had the skills to make it through the night.

The news report is a bit inaccurate (not a big surprise) but SAR didn't begin until late in the day on Sunday. On our way down the fire road at around 2:30pm the Forest Service had just arrived and the San Bernardino Sheriff as well and were getting ready but no SAR on site yet. They had essential no information other than it was an Asian woman possibly missing, but didn't know for sure.

The weather was just beginning to turn for the worse, but the temps were not terribly low so hopefully she was able to stay warm enough.

Afternoon, I have a quick question..... although I am not SAR, nor do I have Alpine Certification, Is there a group of locals willing to go out and look for her? Is there a web site people can post to that need help or are lost in our local mountains? I have searched for 2 days on how to get in touch with someone....without bothering the Sheriffs, as to how a local hiker can help.without joining a search group, don't you think someone would have come up with a way to log on to a site and post details of hikes? Just an idea. Thanks

I think many of us who live nearby have thought about it. But I'm sure SARS wouldn't exactly encourage it as they are busy looking for 1 person now and don't want any more added to the list. From news reports, they had to rescue her friend who went searching for her. I understand she planned on taking the backbone down. If so, it can get a bit sketchy up there with the ice, snow and very strong winds. SARS knows what it's doing, so leave the expertise to them.

Dad, this question often comes up. As I have seen the discussions go, outside help is STRONGLY discouraged, sometimes to the point of arresting people.

The reason is that searches end up becoming very methodical explorations of terrain, in which clues are sought, and resources are allocated based upon clues found. The look is for "footprints" (actual or metaphorical). When a bunch of us well meaning amateurs go into an area, we usually eradicate all sign of anyone who has passed, and we don't have the training to recognize the disturbed ground, the snapped twig, the slide in the snow that has filled in.

Plus, in technical terrain, well-meaning people who are not skilled, get hurt/lost/exhausted/etc....and end up pulling resources away from the actual search.

We make it harder.

The SAR's know what they are doing, they know what they need, they know how to get help, and are best left to do what they are best at doing.

I know Michelle and she attempted Denali a few years ago with an expedition. Very tough lady and so sweet. I'm so sad about this and I'm hoping that she can pull through this by drawing on past experiences but my hopes are being dashed by the time passing without the success of finding her. The news is beginning to drop the ball on updates of the search.

Cheryl, KTLA last night at 10pm said they had not had any luck. But SAR has allot of volunteers so they are not going to call off the search anytime soon.

YETI

Hey WPSMB gang,
I was trying to think of anything or info that I have that might help. Just a few thoughts;

1. As I understand she signed the Baldy register ~8:30 am on Sat (12/4) and her usual circuit was to summit via the Sierra Hut trail and then hike down the Backbone trail to the Baldy notch. Assuming it took her ~3hrs to ascend, she would have summited ~noon.

2. The WPSMB gang was on the summit around noon and I know there were lots of other hikers up on Baldy on Sat (12/4) and Sun (12/5) with cameras and lots of folks post their photos on-line. Not sure if any of this photo-documentation can help with the search.

3. Assuming she had summited and then descended along the Backbone trail, I got thinking about the photos I took on Sunday morning (12/5) up around Mt Harwood & the Backbone trail and wondering if any of my photos might show some evidence that she (or anyone) had traveled thru that area.

4. After hiking up Register Ridge, I intersected the Devil’s Backbone trail at about ~9:30am on Sunday (12/5). This photo shows the snow on the trail at this intersection. I don’t recall any significant boot tracks along this section of the trail. On Sunday morning, I was breaking steps thru this snow patch as the snow was surprising soft for that early in the day (the temps were actually pretty mild). Not sure if this suggests that she didn’t pass thru this section of the trail or not. She could have easily avoided the snow by walking on the side of the trail. But evidence (or lack of) of a solid boot-track could help focus the search.


5. This photo shows the snow on the north side of Harwood and the Devils Backbone trail. There was not a lot of snow along this section of the Backbone trail on Sunday morning.


6. Does anyone have any info on Michelle’s time table?

7. Does SAR close the mountain and/or search area to hikers while they’re searching?

Anyhow, I’m still thinking of anything that I can do to help and I’m still hoping for the best and sending positive & warm vibes up to Michelle.
Cheers,
RickG

Graham: I saw and spoke to her at the hut around 12:15 on my way down. She did not mention her intended route. If she did take the west ridge, most of the WPSMB gang should have passed her on their way down.

That's wierd, reports had her signing in the register at 8:30am and you say you saw her at 12:15 at the hut? If she was in training mode that doesn't make sense. Not saying your wrong but that leads me to believe the 8:30am sign in is questionable????

I am pretty sure of this time. I was on top when Cindy arrived on top and ran into Doug Sr. and Shin on the way down. I don't believe 8:30 is accurate.

Darin what color jacket was she wearing?
Thanks for your post Darin...
KTLA news as of 6am this morning..

http://www.ktla.com/ktla-mt-baldy-missing-hiker,0,2459359.story

I was wrong. We saw her about 11:00. Got to our car about 12:00. She was wearing a yellow Patagonia down jacket, however she was planning on taking that off when she got on her way. She was really concerned because she forgot her sunglasses as she had experienced snow blindness in similiar conditions before.

Jeff -
Did you read the comments after that article? We need to arrange a lynch mob for some of those idiots!!! They have no clue what goes on out there on the trail in less than favorable weather conditions. ERRRRRGH!!

Stacy

...did anyone notice the photo of the mountain in the upper left hand corner of the screen at the beginning of the KTLA report? It looks more like Whitney than Baldy...