Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Poles & Small Black Pack Bag On Way to Vagabond Peak

The owner might have left them there intending to return later after a climb. It is possible the owner forgot where he/she left them and continued on out to the trail head; I think that is the most likely reason. Did you open the bag to see if there was any personal identification? Alternatively, you could have brought them out and left them at the Bishop Police station. The faded bandana seems to indicate that they had been there a long time. As far as proper etiquette, I don't know. Things get left in the mountains all the time with the owners never intending to return to search for them.

I lost a nice pair of Austrian wool mitts at the start of the Moby Dick route at the base of El Capitan; hopefully, another climber found them later and had use for them. I found a pair of ladies Icelandic mitts and a Swiss Army knife, that had melted out from under the snow below Blue Lake, above Lake Sabrina; probably lost before the Winter snows began.

Here is a similar personal story from Summer 2012: I still have a black, Patagonia fleece pull-over sweater, men's size large, and a beany cap, that I found near the South side of Morgan pass out of Little Lakes Valley. Both items were very dirty and weathered. They were not there when I went over the pass the previous day to camp at Morgan lakes, but I found them neatly folded up on a rock below the south side of the pass when I hiked out the following day. I suspect that a large family of hikers, that I saw that day at Morgan Lakes, had found them and left them where I found them, hoping the owner would find them. I yelled and waited, in case they belonged to someone nearby, but got no response. I took the items home and washed them. If they belong to anyone on this forum, let me know and I'll send them to you.