Ken, the common thread I see with this year's fatalities and earlier ones too is: These are people from out-of-state, not familiar with Mt Whitney, not familiar with the Sierra, little or no experience on other Sierra trails. Maybe these things add up to a higher possibility of making big enough mistakes to lead to disaster.

Of course the other part of the equation is that the Mt Whitney trail sees nearly 100 times more traffic than almost every other trail in the Sierra. It goes higher than all the others, too. So in that light, more accidents (...and deaths, too) is not so surprising.

By the way, I am pretty sure I could identify the spot where John Likely lost the trail: Just above Trailside Meadow, there is a point where the descending trail (and ascending, too) makes a U-turn switchback. I myself missed it. It is not in steep ground, but the route needs to "turn around" to connect with the main route. On the descent, the trail is heading east, and looking ahead, there is what looks like the trail. Well-trodden (from everyone missing the turn), and just a step up (about 10") on a boulder to continue on the WRONG path. People ascending missed the hard left turn, stepped up on the boulder and continued east, too.

If it were dark, someone trying to descend could follow this, and I am pretty sure it leads out onto a talus and rock-covered bench that descends nicely toward Mirror Lake. Someone tired and wanting to get down quickly might mistakenly think the bench would lead to the bottom.

I didn't take a picture of the spot, but I DID build a wall of rocks at least a foot high across the boulder, pretty-well closing off the inviting wrong path. So people will have a much harder time taking the wrong route.

Once below Trailside, I DID take pictures of the bench that Likely might have followed. Then I noticed at the bottom, the bench dead ends! Descending more would be treacherous, but turning around would mean half an hour of climbing back up. At that dead end, there is a crack that drops 30-40', into green bushes! 20 yards or so from the bushes was what appeared to be two items, like a pad or something. I think SAR may have left them after transporting the body.

I think those bushes were the only thing that could have concealed a body for the days Likely was missing.

Here are two pictures. The odd pad/items are in this one link. A composite picture shows the lines and the pad/items at the bottom: link