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

My wife's name is Julie (who's flying back from Indonesia).

Prayers for you and your family . Also for the brave people looking for him !!

Required results come from Positive thoughts.

Wade is fine.

Safe travels to all family members heading for California.

BTW, I'm on a SAR team in Southern California. Waiting for the pager to go off should my team get the Mutual Aid callout.

I suspect though they have more than enough searchers; likely focused on getting them all up the mountain...

Yeah Todd the guy looks like a warrior.

Been away from the board for a bit so I just heard about this...my prayers go out to Wade, his family & friends. I'm sending all the good thoughts and karma I can come up with.

From the family blog:
(copied below)
====================
The big news today is that they found Wade's pack and ice axe. They first spotted it from a helicopter, then were able to get to it on the ground. An initial search inside turned up his wallet with ID. The pack is now at the base on the other side of the mountain, and at the time that I spoke with the SAR team this afternoon, they didn't have an inventory of its contents. They found it at about noon, and were planning a search with dogs, I can't remember if that was started today or will start tomorrow. There are two dog teams.

The pack was clean and in good condition, and looked like it had been set on the ground, did not slide down the mountain.

The pack was found a bit off the switchback trail that goes down the west side of the mountain, so the concentration of the search tomorrow will be on the west side, though they will continue to search the east side in case he went back up and over the ridge.

Here is a photo taken (a month ago) from close to the green X on the google map. We are hoping for the best.

The green X refered to is based on the coordinates of the location where Wade's pack was found and were posted on the Brunette family blog yesterday.

Here are those coordinates:
N 36 33.80 W 118 17.60

They can be copied and pasted into the search window of Google Earth to see the location.

For Immediate Release, October 31, 2009
Contact: Adrienne Freeman, 559/565-3131

Search Effort for Missing Washington Man Continues near
Mt. Whitney

A large scale interagency effort to find Wade Brunette will continue through the weekend in the remote, mountainous area around Mt. Whitney. Searchers are collecting clues in the field and are continuing to search on both sides of the Sierra Nevada crest. Approximately 100 searchers are participating in the effort.

Search and rescue personnel (including ground searchers and dog teams) from Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks and rescue teams from Inyo, Mono, Los Angeles, Fresno, Tulare, Sierra Madre, Montrose, and Contra Costa Counties and China Lake Mountain Rescue Unit are currently on scene. Helicopters from the National Park Service and the National Guard are being utilized for aerial searching and for team transport into the remote backcountry area.

Anyone who was in the backcountry area around Whitney Portal, the Mt. Whitney summit, or the areas in Sequoia National Park around Crabtree Meadow or Mt. Russell are asked to contact investigators whether or not they saw someone matching Mr. Brunette’s description.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks: 559/565-3195
Inyo County Sheriff’s Department: 760/878-0383


-NPS-

sequoiakingsnps on Twitter

I don't know what the best way to communicate the information would be, tracks that are shared on google earth or even just a picture posted on the families blog with drawn in lines showing as close as possible the areas where searchers have been. I would guess that many of those involved in the search have gps and could log their tracks for the day and post them in one place.
It would be very helpful to anyone assisting the search as it carries on. Not wasting energy, time searching areas that have already been given a good search will help expand the range of search and increase the chance of finding Wade.
Can anyone on scene coordinate this?

I am a little confused. Does the location of his pack indicate that he made it over to the west side of the mountain on the main trail but not the summit ?
I know people dont like to speculate but what does the location of his pack suggest as far as what route he was taking ?

Sending good thoughts and prayers to Wade and his family for his safe return.

N

Sea2summit:

Trust me, they already do this. GPS logs are recorded and mapped. The guys coordinating the search are very, very experienced and know what they're doing. However, the information will not be made public; it's part of the ongoing search effort. The family apparently posted the Google Earth information. That is their call.

A short summary for Fuji Guy and others who might be joining at the end of this topic:
Wade Brunette, age 73 and an experienced hiker and climber left the Portal early Sunday AM.
Reports of his position have been made at 8:30 AM at Trailside Meadow, at 2:00 PM about 2/3 up the switchbacks and at 3:45 on the backside of the ridge just beyond (north of) the switchbacks past the JMT/Main Trail junction. His picture was taken here.
Those who summitted on Monday did not find his name in the register at the summit.
Yesterday (Friday) his pack was found at these coordinates:
N36 33.80 W118 17.60.
On Google Earth this position appears just below where he was last sighted on Sunday; still on the west side of the ridge and north of the trail junction.
It is reported that the back pack appeared to have been set down, vs. falling to its position and that there were tracks leading away from the pack.
Searches continue on both the east and west sides of the ridge.

I day hiked Mt. Whitney and Mt. Muir yesterday (Friday) via the main trail. I kept my eyes open for Wade or any evidence of where he might be, but didn't see anything.

There were two SAR helicopters and many searchers on foot. Some of the searchers had hiked in and others had been dropped on the summit. Their main focus was on the west side, but they were on the east side also. (It was really strange to look through one of the windows and see a big chopper rising up from below.)

I met a large SAR group at about 2:30 PM on the switchbacks between Mt. Muir and the trail junction. A small chopper was hovering in the area. They said they had just found Wade's pack a short distance off the trail. It appears that he set his pack down not far from where he was last seen on Sunday.

Thank you for the update and summary. Hope everything ends well. Good luck.

Regarding why the SAR tracks are not released:

All SAR efforts are handled by law enforcement in this country. This is because missing persons cases are law enforcement issues. They often turn into abduction, suicide, homicide, or a simple accidental death. All of those types of cases are handled by law enforcement and have to be treated like any other investigation. Obviously this case does not have any indication of being criminal, nevertheless, until it is resolved, the whole operation has to be treated as a possible criminal investigation. Therefore, the evidence gathered (and SAR team GPS tracks ARE evidence) cannot be released to the public while the investigation is active.

There are other issues as well. To release tracks would implicitly welcome the public to assist in the search in a manner that does not coordinate with the Command Post. That complicates everything for the managers, not to mention what happens when people get hurt trying to help. The managers often welcome the public and try to utilize them, but I can tell you it's hard enough managing 20 or 30 field teams. Attempting to manage another 50-odd civilians in terrain such as Whitney would be dangerous and could hamper the mission.

Hope that helps.

That makes sense. Thank you for explaining that (Travinski.)