Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Repost of SAR request(from HST)

This community is so tightly woven together when the need for help is called. It was such a joy to hear that the group was found. Im sure we all remember the tragic climb at the begging this year at Shasta. Everyone be carfull when we go out there to climb those dang Mts. but have fun! Remember you can never be to prepared.

Just posted some info of our trip this weekend on Fall 2010 Conditions forum. Upon leaving the portal and entering Mtrs Route we stopped in a safe and clear area and spent some time picking out land marks, meeting points, and exit planning in case we lost visibility or just got lost. Not sure if this is the documented or normal protocol for entering zones like Whitney but it is something we do everywhere we go backpacking even though we have been there before. Just a thought to share with anyone new to the are and thinking about heading up through the Whitney Zone. Good Job to the rescue folks.
GK

Apparently, so am I. For some unknown reason, I was thinking Cedar Grove was the west end trailhead for the HST...

In talking to Doug Sr. today, there is a way to get to Cedar Grove without going over Forester Pass. How they would have figured that out is anybody's guess. If they had the strength to go over Forester (assuming that it has as much snow as the upper elevations of Whitney), why didn't they just exit via Trail Crest?

As lot of questions that it would be interesting to hear them answer...

I got to the summit of Whitney yesterday thanks to a couple of really strong Canadians. There were only faint remnants of the SAR team's tracks in a few places on the west side.

Just for clarification... Is the Forester Pass you are referring to the one up the JMT past Tyndall Creek and near Junction Peak?
GK

Yes.



Inside the Smithsonian Hut.
The SAR gear left behind made our ~1 hour stay on the summit much more comfortable.

I heard a rumor that one climber on Sunday was going for the summit to retrieve some booty to help finance his trip to Whitney. I hope he failed.

BTW, that's Maz and Brad (from BC) enjoying their first Whitney summit.

The guys crossed Forester, then Glen then down Paradise Valley to Cedar Grove, with some other hikers they met who were able to tell them the direction out to a road.

Regarding the Whitney hut: the SAR people didn't "leave" anything there for others to grab. That's the emergency gear left in the other room in a locked box. The guys stuck there reasonably got to it to use in an emergency. Unfortunately, in the scramble to get everyone off, it looks like it didn't get put away. On the chance that anyone else gets there, if you can get it into the other room (through the ceiling) that would be great. To steal that stuff would be hugely bad karma... .

George

That is seriously out of the way....they walked past 2-3 major trails out, to west, and to east. That is astonishing!

They are lucky they ran into someone, or they'd have come out in Tahoe!

I may be heading up on Halloween. I'll move the stuff over if it hasn't been done yet. Any possibility of getting a key to the other side? I'm short and don't know that I could reach up to the ceiling.

Richard - I think you need a combo, not a key.

I've done that stretch of the PCT/JMT many times and once you clear Forester, it's all downhill and easy going. Glen isn't too bad, but Forester can be a PITA anytime of the year. The route over Colby and Avalanche Pass isn't bad either, but like others have mentioned, they would have been better off going south once they were on the west side. A decent map would have told them all they needed to know..........................DUG

Richard: That would be great, but I don't think there's time to get you a key -- the supervisor is gone for a week. There's some confusion on whether there's a key or combo on there now. I was told it was switched to a key from a combo, but I'll check. If nothing else, maybe you could get a couple of large plastic bags up there to protect the stuff and leave a note ('please don't take...")?? I'll check today.

thanks,

g.

Richard:

OK. Plan II: just talked to the area supervisor who, after some hemming & hawing, decided to just leave the stuff there. She's going to replace it all next spring anyway. If it's not too much trouble, maybe at least take a big garbage bag to put it all in, but otherwise it can just stay on that side of the hut.

Huge thanks for the offer! Have a safe climb if you go up there next week.

g.

George - I was just going off a news report where I read the combo had been texted to those stuck in the hut. That could be BS from some reporter though......................DUG

Dug: no. It had in fact been changed to a key. Someone had broken in and the replacement was what they had on hand... . Just found that out.

Thanks!

g.

PS: Richard or anyone else going up there. I just got a note from the District Ranger. Could any of you take an inventory of what's in the room (if you have time and you don't have to scurry immediately off...!) that looks like SAR gear?? Then email it to me?

Mucho grazie!

g.

Perhaps if someone gets up there they could put an official looking note on the stuff. Like; Emergency supplies, please don't remove or destroy. Lives may depend......

Don Bowie's helmet cam video of the helicopter rescue...

I'd guess that they managed to cross over the ridge, ended up on PCT, and couldn't cross back east because of the snow, so they were basically boxed in. With the exception of Forester Pass, that entire trail seems to run at a lower elevation. I wonder if they managed to summit?



I bet just the fuel for the Chinook cost more than the entire permit collections over the last month. The park should really charge people more when they head into the Sierra after the first snow.

[quote=Eugene K


I bet just the fuel for the Chinook cost more than the entire permit collections over the last month. The park should really charge people more when they head into the Sierra after the first snow. [/quote]

Sounds like another up and coming U.S. Congresman at work.
Sure I would love to pay for someone elses mistake - sign me up.

If you don't want to pay, you can just leave a waiver at the visitors center asking not to rescue you, like a DNR order ...

DITTO THAT!

There is nothing wrong with heading out into a storm as long as you know when it's time to head home. I LOVE STORM-CHASING IN WINTER! I would have never ever headed out for a multi-day with the forecast that THEY SAW ON DOUG'S COMPUTER SCREEN AT THE PORTAL STORE!

BTW George, if I make it up there this weekend, I'll try and get you that list of gear. (And this is a joke.) Can I try the Oxygen system out? (I didn't see a regulator, though.)

I would still be curious to see trip report from trip leaders and stranded parties before I made any conclusions. Certainly it looks as some mistakes were made.

As far as the suggestion that people pay extra for hiking into snow, that is a subject for a whole other thread. There have been several threads already dealing into the discussion of charging for rescues. The suggestion that someone sign a waiver not to be rescued defies any type of logic. Education is a better deterant than any kind of fee.