Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Overdue Hiker

Hi Overdue hiker Shyam Das Indian (Asian origin) 60 + years old 5' 7" thin maybe wearing blue hiking pants, Olivegreen day pack, Red hiking Poles and at times will tie a white scarf around his head.

Left trailcamp area around 2:30 PM Sunday afternoon and did not return to the Portal during Monday .


He will be moving very slow.

If you think you have any information Please call 760 937 3234 /or 760 876 5606.

If you came over trailcrest on Sunday afternoon or yesterday you may have passed this persdon on the westside of Whitney or in the Crabtree area.

Thanks Doug

Ranger Bob was talking about re-working the sign at the John Muir Trail junction this past Sunday..... maybe a better idea would be a gate... (there seem to be plenty of stupid gates all over the Sierra...) one there might prove useful in keeping a tired, fatigued hiker from heading downhill when they should be heading uphill towards Trail Crest.

I hope this turns out OK.

Many thanks for the post. Some additional Info:

MISSING HIKER
LAST SEEN SUNDAY EVENING, AUGUST 5th, HIKING MOUNT WHITNEY




NAME: SHYAM DAS
AGE: 68
HEIGHT: 5'5"
BUILD: SMALL-MEDIUM
WEARING: NAVY BLUE TRACK PANTS, GREEN DAY BACK, WHIT TOWEL ON HEAD


IF SEEN OR ANY OTHER INFO, PLEASE CALL 408.446.4985 or any of the other numbers listed earlier.

Shyam Das has been found. He's alive and breathing but has sustained a head injury and is being taken the local hospital immediately.

Thank you all so much for your help and warmth, our best wishes to you all and please hope for a good recovery. Thank you.

The Das Family

So happy that he has been found. Sending out positive thoughts for a full and speedy recovery from his injury.

That is SO great to hear that he's found! BV to those that located him.

Praying for a speedy recovery!

Thanks so much for the good news. I agree with an earlier statement about reworking some of the signs. Doing this just may save a life someday. Is this a volunteer situation or does it have go through government channels?

The signs were apparently not a part of this story, but there are other lessons. If the Sierra Wave has it right, this hiker was in trouble at Lone Pine Lake, where his party told him to descend. He did not, and followed far behind them. They met up at trail Camp about 2:30, the summit party descending. He again refused to go down and continued to alone. He was last seen at Trail Camp near sunset (this was all Sunday)"wandering". Someone gave him food and water, but did not walk him out. He was found yesterday, as the family post above says. Just an assumption, but I would be amazed if he ever went over the Crest.

I guess Summit Fever makes everybody stupid.

Being that high up, its easy for your brain to stop making sound decesions. So the next question is, how much can/should the group you hiked with make the decesion for you? Tough call to make; someones goal vs staying alive. And how would the hiker react to being told to turn around?

Any update on his condition?

I was on the Trail above Mirror Lake and witnessed this rescue. I was so sad to see this complex rescue for this severly injured man, but so glad to hear that he is alive. I was hiking the trail on an overnight permit with my husband and two teenagers, and it was quite sobering for us to have the heli flying all day, but even more to see it land and do a rescue. We have made three attempts at Whitney and this one was successful. As a parent, I think part of the learning process is learning when to retreat. But how do you do that when the party that needs to retreat is an adult? Difficult.

it was a couple of years ago that some hiker spotted a guy in trouble and did not turn him around and he unfortunatly passed away, this guy should thank his lucky stars that someone did not light weight his condition

I'm coming in late to this discussion but I think an important point is not being discussed. All the members of a group, and the leader in particular, are responsible for the welfare of all the other members. It appears that the other members of this group put more importance on their own summiting than on ensuring that everyone in their group was safe. When it became obvious that this man could not keep up, at least one member of the group should have surrendered their own goal, stayed with him, and made sure he did not push past his physical and mental limits.

I had a similar experience, although it did not take place on a major goal like Whitney. I was hiking with a novice who insisted on pushing past her limits. When I saw that she wouldn't listen to reason I planted myself on the trail above her and said the only way she could go higher would be to push me out of the way.

On the related issue of what to do if you come across a stranger in the mountains who seems to be in trouble I think it depends on the stranger's condition. If the person seems to be rational then I think they have the right to make a mistake, even a potentially fatal one. But if s/he seems irrational and unable to consider the alternatives realistically, then I think even a stranger has the obligation to put aside their own goal and protect him/her.

From the news article(s) I read, the hiker went back to/stayed at Lone Pine lake with another member of their group who wasn't going to go higher, then the next morning decided to go on alone up the mountain rather than hike out with the other member who didn't attempt to summit. I'm not sure what more the rest of the group/leaders could have done, as they had already thought he was staying 'low' and/or going back down the mountain.

Not exactly:

This account appears in several reports, none of which vary in any significant detail:

"Das set out to summit Mt. Whitney with a group of hikers on Sunday August 5th. After reaching Lone Pine Lake, Das became tired and stayed behind with one member of the hiking group to rest and nap. When Das woke up he was given instructions to go back down the trail and wait; at this point his other companion began to ascend the trail with the assumption that Das would head back to camp. At approximately 2:00pm Das was spotted at Trail Camp by the rest of the hiking group after they had summited Whitney and were descending the trail. Das refused to go back down the trail with the rest of his group and insisted upon summiting Whitney alone."

About 3 hours later, he was still at Trail Camp, described as "wandering around". Another group gave him some food and water, and left him at TC. He fell on the ledges above Mirror Lake, presumably in the dark later Sunday night, and was not found until Tuesday AM.

At least three missed opportunities that we know of, two by his own group, and who knows how many further encounters he may have had?

summary: consenting adult male rufuses to comply



see above summary


note to self: possible addition of zip ties to gear for non-compliant adult hikers.

Exactly Bee! ... and if you DID try to stop someone against their will (regardless of the fact that they are putting themselves in harm's way) you'd probably have assault charges to deal with.

You can’t “force” someone to turn around.

You also can't use the “implied consent” argument for someone who is just “not thinking clearly”... as you would when administering first aid to an unconscious victim, even though that person could very likely be there soon (or worse).

I don’t think there’s an easy answer to this.

Technical term is short-roping.

Had to do that for someone at much higher altitude once when his dull brains were in no position to argue. (we used a real rope). Sometimes hard for either party to recognize or agree at any altitudes, perhaps harder when so close to safety. This case reminds me somewhat of the pattywatty case on Whitney- maybe HACE? at only moderate altitude

Surely there are more alternatives than "forcing" someone to turn around. How about a simple act of companionship? The guy is 68 years old, moving so weakly that he needed a morning nap at LPL for cryin out loud. Took him until 2:00 to get to Trail Camp, by which time his group had summitted and descended, covering 16 miles in the time it took him to cover 6. How hard would it have been for one person just to stay with him?

Harvey: interesting that you would recognize a similarity to pattywatty. Das was apparently hurting pretty much from the start as well. May have not been competent as low as LPL, (and was apparently at least confused later at TC) based on his companion's belief that he would descend from there, and then not doing it. He was also w/o food or even water at TC. Seems like a serious condition such as Patty obviously experienced would have made it even more obvious to his group - or even the strangers at TC - that he needed some serious looking after.