Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Wade Brunette

He's out climbing Whitney by himself at 73 then he has the will and the stubborn streak that will not let him give up on pulling himself to safely. I know that he will come out of this just fine just a little tired, hungry and cold but fine.

I wish I could be there to help in some way. But my prayers will have to do.

Thanks to everyone for all the updates.

Kurt:

Actually, you and your friends may be sources of the most crucial information at a critical time of day. You say you passed him "just before reaching Trail Crest" -- do you mean to say he had made it to Trail Crest and was proceeding to the summit when you passed him on your way down (i.e., before your crew had reached Trail Crest)? Or, had you and your 2 friends already reached Trail Crest on your descent and you passed him as you were heading down the top switchbacks (i.e., before Wade had reached Trail Crest)?

Simply put, did you pass him on the Whitney summit side of the JMT junction, or the Trail Crest side of the junction? This could factor into whether he bailed out to the west, or if he pushed on to the top.

Also, what was the weather like when you passed him?

The extended members of the Whitney Family are pulling for you, Wade.

BruinDave

I he did go down the west side, I'm hoping that a JMTr finds an Angry, pissed off,wondering why everyone is looking for him kind of guy.

Go Wade.

Is there any news this morning?

No word yet, Bruin, Kurt and his friends gave all the pertinent information and a photo of Wade to the rangers who contacted SR.

Chris -
We can only hope for a "no news is good news" situation at this point.

Stacy... exactly. Just keep praying...

Oh, I have been since Doug's first post yesterday...and checking here for updates every 10 min.

Here's the latest from Sierra Wave . . .

http://news.sierrawave.net/eastern-sierra-news/2652-whitney-search-continues

Hey im one of Kurt's friends who saw Wade. When we saw Wade we were on our way down from the summit. It was just before the switch backs that come right after the Trail Junction with the JMT. So on his way up he was definetly on the right trail. However, the three of us struggle to find the trail on the way down from the top and actuall ended up below where the trail was. Fortunately we were able to see the first window and met up with the trail there. It is possible that he also got disoriented.
The weather when we saw him was fine. It was pretty sunny and only a slight wind. There were no clouds in the sky at all.

Also we had passed Wade earlier about 4.45 in the morning. When we passed him he was heading down on the trail, not up, which was what he thought he was doing. Because of this I think it is a real possiblity that he went down the JMT trail by mistake on his way back from the summit.

Hey Ranger Bob;

Can you give us any inside scoop from your SARs contacts?

They've been up there for a while now. Sky's look clear today. I hope they've been able to get air support in.

cheers & prayers,
C~

P.s. Bob - I hope all is well with you & yours. Mouse & I send our "sandwich" hugs to you.

Heya Brandon;

Thanks for the info. I'm confused. When you passed him in the morning he was heading down, but thought he was going up the Mountain?
By the 4:45am time stamp, that was before Richard & Gigamike saw him, but then you guys saw him again (and after Richard & Mike did on their way back down) was it after he had passed the JMT split?

SanDi_carole, any real info has to come through channels from the sheriff or his designates, as I'm sure everyone understands. Usually we're talking about media releases, but it extends to posting in public forums. We're all volunteers--i.e., civilians in real life--but on SAR missions we work at the pleasure of the county sheriff, or Park Service if in a Nat'l Park. So we are like other county employees, following orders and procedures, etc., except there is no pay. (But we are covered by Workmans Comp in case of injury or....)

Kandy's link to Sierra Wave is a good one, although it doesn't go into details you all are looking for. I couldn't add much of interest, anyway. However, I will say that there is a lot going on.

All is well with me, although I am stuck at work this week. Wish I could be out there. Thanks to you and M. Mouse for thinking of me.

Quillansculpture, I didn't answer your earlier question, because it's too long a story for here. However, you might poke around www.mra.org. It's the Mountain Rescue Association website, and the parent organization to which CLMRG, Inyo, and all the other mountain SAR teams in the US belong. Tells who we are, what we do, how we train, and a whole lot more.

Yup when we passed Wade he must have gotten turned around or became disoriented because he thought he was going up but was really going down. After talking to us he turned around and started going up.
The second time we saw him it was after the JMT split and he was still on his way up.

Even more of a reason to expect Wade to have gone down the wrong side.

I don't think any of know what the conditions were when (if) he headed west bound, do they have anyone searching the Crabtree meadow, CB Lks or SB toward Guyot area?

This is a photo of the west side from EK1029's photo album.

Looks like you might have some drifts to deal with, but it doesn't look that bad to me. Even looks dry down by Timberline Lake.

I don't like that he's described as being disoriented. Extreme fatigue? AMS?

My thoughts exactly Richard. Wade (I HOPE) went down the west side below the snow line and hunkered down.

The reasons that I think this will turn out OK are:

1. Experienced Hiker ( I don't care how old you are)
2. 3000cm Pack (approx) Gotta be loading self rescue equip
3. Accomplished packer.

brandon covered it pretty well.... I took a quick pic of Wade because I was so impressed.. i passed him as he was leaning on his ice pick and in between gasps asked "how much farther to the summit" to which i responded about a mile and a half... then he proceeded another 20yards and leaned over again- the point at which i took a picture... he had a large daypack probably 60 liters and it looked pretty full of gear..

Full of gear could be a good thing. Hopefully some of that gear was things to keep him warm.