Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Missing man on MR -- Recovered

Possibly. He had left his pack behind. Very puzzling.

"southwest slope" doesn't mean exactly 225 degrees bearing.
That night was not that cold.
I suspect that he had some underlying health conditions.

He and the other three in his group had already spent an UNplanned night near the Whitney-Russell pass. They were day hikers.

He insisted on heading upward, the other three descended, and made it off the mountain safely.

Their last water was from Upper Boy Scout lake. Dehydration could well have been an issue.

Shared this thread with a non-mountaineering friend.

She thought the whole thing was a bit ghoulish until I pointed out, that like the aviation industry, an incident is scrutinized so that lessons are learned and applied.

Haha, true that it wasn't notably cold, but the man in question was without a pack, in his twilight years, likely underfed and dehydrated, and you can go hypothermic in 50 degree weather.

I developed hypothermia sleeping un-swathed in 50 degree weather. Imagine a 68 y.o. man, alone, unprepared, likely dehydrated, and definitely exhausted.

If he injured himself and couldn't move, that could easily have exacerbated the situation.

Read and learn!! We all take away a little more knowledge and experience from these discussions.

Only a 1/4 mile from the JMT? He went quite a distance in the wrong direction after leaving his pack at the Notch on the MR to summit. It makes no sense.