Here is some info I found today concerning these climbers and others! 10 hikers located in Sierra
By Chuck Carroll
Mercury News
Seizing on a break in the weather, rescuers today located 10 of the hikers missing in a blizzard that also killed two climbers stranded on the face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.
Four of the missing hikers rescued - Jeff Peacock, 45; his father, Tom Peacock, 75; Douglas W. Schneider, 47; and Britt Jefferson, 57 - were from Lafayette. All are experienced backpackers who had camped in snow previously and were prepared for bad weather.
Also found - but not yet rescued - were four members of a Santa Cruz County winemaking family - two father-and-son pairs - who had been missing since Sunday from a 9,400-foot-elevation lake east of Fresno in the Sierra National Forest.
Those four - Paul Bargetto, 47, his brother-in-law Frank Horath, 45, and their sons, Michael Bargetto, 20, and Dominic Horath, 16, began their hike Friday at Courtright Reservoir, in a remote area northeast of Fresno.
They were spotted from the air at about 11 a.m. walking around, and all appeared to be in good shape, authorities said. A rescue team was lowered to the ground and expected to reach the stranded hikers in less than a half hour.
"Oh thank God, thank God, this is the greatest day of my life, " rejoiced Rita Bargetto-Snider, who was at the command post where the rescue was being coordinated when she received word that her brother, Paul, was apparently safe.
Another two hikers - John Bumgarner, 28, and Shana McCarthy, 24, of San Luis Obispo - were spotted by a helicopter crew Wednesday night and told to stay in place until rescuers could reach them. That couple - and their dog - appeared safe, Fresno County Sheriff's Lt. Roby Rien said.
In Sequoia National Park, two women in a four-person climbing party on Mount Whitney were brought to safety at Lone Pine at about 10:30 a.m. The helicopter, which had been grounded in bad weather Wednesday, was headed back to Sky Blue Lake, above the 11,000-foot elevation level, to rescue the two men, said Jo Dee Rodgers, the wife of ex-Green Beret and real estate transaction manager Andrew ``Tony'' Smith, 42, of Scotts Valley.
The others in the party are Amy Childers, 40, of Daly City, described as an avid hiker, and Paul and Obdulia ``Lula'' Shank of Redwood City.
``We understand there are no medical issues, but we won't know that for sure until they all get back,'' Rodgers said. The weather on the mountain was crystal clear, but cold and windy.
Relatives said it was the first time any of the group had attempted to summit Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the ``lower 48 states'' at 14,494 feet.
``My big fear is they'll want to try again, said Mark Hall of Oregon, Smith's brother and Shank's brother-in-law, who spoke by phone from Lone Pine. ``Knowing my brother, he hasn't learned a lesson from this. ... Oh wait, his wife says he has.''
On a more serious note, the relatives expressed their gratitude to the rescue parties, made up of National Park Service, National Forest Service and Inyo County Sheriff's Department employees who spent the night on the mountain, as well as for the helicopter crew that worked in ``extraordinarily dangerous'' conditions to save the missing hikers.
``Three teams spent the night out there last night looking for people that they never even heard of, met or knew. These people are amazing,'' Hall said.
Mercury News staff writer Kim Vo and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Contact Chuck Carroll at ccarroll@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5206.
