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tdg119
Social climber
Northampton, PA
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Sep 15, 2013 - 08:05pm PT
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Funny, we contacted a drone company (www.avinc.com) and not sure what interaction there was but they were ultimately told there was nothing they could do to help.
Not much new here. Really hoping they manage to track down Morales. Last I spoke to the detective he said they'd get a local officer in his hometon to pay a visit. After speaking to my parents today I got the impression Matt got to know them and spoke of them once or twice.
Aside from that I opened the missing persons in Matt's hometown. Don't know why I didn't do this 2 months ago but hadn't thought of it. PA detective to contact me Monday. Won't get into that mor until I know what they're able to do for us.
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pacarockhound
Social climber
Escondido CA
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Sep 15, 2013 - 09:11pm PT
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maybe the drone company thought the area was too vast, or too many unknowns.....?
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zBrown
Ice climber
Brujo de La Playa
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Sep 15, 2013 - 09:53pm PT
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Funny, we contacted a drone company (www.avinc.com) and not sure what interaction there was but they were ultimately told there was nothing they could do to help.
Definitely a "future" for the general public. In addition to a couple of mentions on this thread, there was a thread somewhere a while back where the technology was discussed. My memory is that it is not as expensive as one would think. I'll look around.
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crankster
Trad climber
South Lake Tahoe, CA
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Sep 15, 2013 - 11:08pm PT
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Aside from that I opened the missing persons in Matt's hometown. Don't know why I didn't do this 2 months ago but hadn't thought of it. PA detective to contact me Monday. Won't get into that mor until I know what they're able to do for us.
Smart move. Time to try anything. At this point in time, I think the odds of Matt's presumed remains being found in the Sierra before winter = the odds of him turning up alive in PA or elsewhere, gone missing for whatever reason.
I'm really hoping the family receives closure soon. They have done so much, pursued every avenue; such an admirable, loving group of people.
One solid clue. It's what we've all hoped for.
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
extraordinaire
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Sep 15, 2013 - 11:52pm PT
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looking forward to ctadlock's tr.
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kenish
Gym climber
Orange County, CA
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Sep 16, 2013 - 12:04am PT
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++ to crankster!! ^^^^
A thought about Matt's nighttime phone pattern. Where would Matt charge his phone? He probably left it somewhere to charge since I assume there were no outlets in a secure place at the campground. He may have asked neighboring campers to charge it in their car or RV. Did Matt's belongings include an AC charger, a car charger (cigarette lighter), or both? The other thought is he charged it in his car at the garage.
His nighttime pattern may have been different on the 16/17th simply because he had no place to charge the phone...no neighboring campers, or his car was locked up in the service bay for final repairs. So he kept it with him in the tent.
I know this is low-value conjecture but it could be a very simple answer to "what was different on the last night?"
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LAhiker
Social climber
Los Angeles
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Sep 16, 2013 - 02:51am PT
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Tiffany,
I hope the Morales family provides some useful info. It's good that you opened that missing person case in Bethlehem. I hope that either the Bethlehem police or Detective Hornbeck can help get access to Matt's email accounts. I also hope that SplitPants has some luck with the Mammoth Lakes library network admin.
Maybe one or more of these avenues will provide a break in the case or at least help narrow things down.
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pacarockhound
Social climber
Escondido CA
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Sep 16, 2013 - 02:59am PT
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Agreed!
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ctadlock
Mountain climber
Mammoth Lakes
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Sep 16, 2013 - 10:40am PT
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Trip Report: Red's Meadow - Iron Mt
Summary: We did not find any sign of Matt. We searched the area from Reds Meadow to Fern Lake, then up to the crest via the main ridge, up to the first major peak, then down the crest, then down the chute back to Fern Lake. We were unable to summit; not enough time. We did not see any other hikers on the trail. From the crest we used binoculars to scan a very large area. Our group included myself, my girlfriend and my golden lab (Odie); we are acclimated to the altitude (we live here), experienced in the mountains and moved fairly quickly. I paid special attention to Odie sniffing things, but all he found was animal tracks.
Notes: This is an extremely rugged hike. While there is a trail up to Fern Lake, beyond that there is not a defined trail nor is there an obvious route that you would take up. I'd say there are 4-5 main routes up spanning a 2 mile wide area of the crest; we only checked 3. Any snow on the mountain at that time might totally change the route up. This makes it very difficult to know which area to search. The terrain is very, very loose granite chunks. It would be very easy to slip due to a rock sliding out or cause a rock slide; we had both happen several times. Beyond the crest, to the summit which we did not reach looked hazardous as well due to the rocks and the often high-wind gusts. Winds in that area can be very severe. We left Reds at 7am and returned at 5:30pm. From the crest I guesstimate it would have taken another 2 hours to the summit; that would put the total trip time at 14-15 hrs for an out and back. To go down the other side, and do the full loop would add some time as well. This area has a lot of animal activity; lots of deer, bear, ground rodents, birds and possible coyote (not sure how high they go up).
Opinion: I do not think that any hiker acting in a responsible manner would attempt this hike in one day while alone; doing so would be very risky. Even if Matt was a very fast hiker this is still a 20 mile, 14 hr hike on difficult terrain. One thing to note, he would have needed alternate transportation to Reds Meadow. The public buses and shuttle do not run until 8-9AM (depending on which one). If he took that it would delay the start ~2 hrs to about 9am. At that point an expected return time would be very late at night, and again there wouldn't be public transportation back to Shady. There is no chance he walked from Shady to Reds. Due to the animal activity, any remains would be scattered over a large area quickly. To get to the summit register, would require either an overnight hike or a small group of very fast hikers singularly focused on getting to the summit, and they would need an alpine start.
UPDATE 1:
Here is a map of the area we had good visibility to search for.
UPDATE 2:
This has probably been done.. but the trail to Fern Lake is a regular mule pack trail (lots of manure on the trail). The pack outfits should be contacted.
We did find a small button on the south shore of Fern lake.
UPDATE 3:
Here are some photos of the terrain, to give you an idea.
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kenish
Gym climber
Orange County, CA
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Sep 16, 2013 - 01:55pm PT
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@ctadlock- Great search effort which everyone appreciates...everything helps but physical searches are the most valuable since they're ultimately how Matt will be found. Note the button you found uses British/Canadian/Aussie spelling, not the American spelling.
@zBrown- Discussed before, the Verizon logs included 3 sites in the Mammoth area...by the library, near Norco (auto service center), and by the top chalet on top of the mountain. The exact lat/lon provided were confirmed on Google satellite and street views and incidental photos of the top chalet. The "antenna finder" site is the wrong context for your investigation and the map only shows 1 of the 3 Verizon sites (it shows tower structures only and not the many different "tenants" on a typical tower). Hope this helps, send me a message if you need the exact lat/lon.
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zBrown
Ice climber
Brujo de La Playa
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Sep 16, 2013 - 02:04pm PT
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On the same site, the antennas map shows 90 within 4 miles of 96 Beaver Ct., while 5 towers are shown on the tower map. It even breaks down antennas as to single or multiple. It's an interesting site. Trying to see if the 4 mile range can be expanded.
http://www.antennasearch.com/sitestart.asp?sourcepagename=reportviewer2&prevsessionidnum=525400415&prevordernum=
1&previtemnum=1§ionname=txreview&pagename=txreview&pagenum=
1&cmdrequest=pagehandler
EDIT: URL's have had carriage returns inserted to stop stretching the page.
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kenish
Gym climber
Orange County, CA
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Sep 16, 2013 - 03:24pm PT
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^^zBrown- That's way better! On the map and list, #1, #12, and #52 are the 3 locations of Verizon sites. FYI, anything in the 450 or 800MHz band is CDMA to/from phone handsets. Other Verizon frequencies are for their internal infrastructure.
A cell site is 9-15 antennas arranged in a triangle; each one covers a 20-40 degree slice. The approximate direction from the cell site can be figured out by knowing which antenna(s) a phone "hit". I seem to recall that Verizon won't research it without law enforcement involvement.
From personal experience, Verizon coverage west of Minaret Summit is spotty at best and usually zero. There may be coverage higher up the east slope of Ritter and the Minarets (cell signals are mostly line-of-sight) if the site on Mammoth Mtn is set up for a 360 degree signal. Coverage at Lake Mary is good...terrain is the big thing.
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Sep 16, 2013 - 03:41pm PT
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I've been away for several days. Had my head buried in work including a trip to Seattle.
CyDuke posted a very good link a few days ago.
http://hikenhi.smugmug.com/Davids-Hiking-and/Mount-Ritter-July-2013
"David" spent several days in the Minarets/Ritter/Banner area alone and with a friend in mid August this year
The 2nd photo on the site is his topo map.
His base camp was at the site above Ediza.
Besides the excellent high definition photos of several aspects of the range there is useful information.
Routes he/they covered
First: Solo Ediza->Iceberg->Cecile
then ascended South Notch. Climbed NW ridge of Kehrlein Minaret. He has many photos of Amphitheater Lake (which he thinks is un-named and calls "alpine" lake) and East face of Adams, back side of Ken and return via South Notch. The ruggedness of the area, especially the E Face of Adams is clear (Secor has no routes listed for E Face of Adams)
We can consider South Notch east side and NW route on Kerhlein covered. Note that he needed his crampons on the South Notch glacier.
His second outing was with friend and they climbed Ritter via SE Glacier. He also has a photo of another climber descending the glacier.
We can consider Ritter SE glacier covered.
Third trip, also with friend, was a round trip around Nydiver lakes towards NE side of Banner. A lot of XC travel but no climbing.
His fourth, also solo: Attempted the Central Chute on Clyde Minaret. Approached via Cecile Lake and climbed about 4 pitches before retreating from a 5th class section.
We can consider the traverse from Cecile Lake to beneath the N Face of Clyde Minaret covered. There's still a considerable distance from there to Cragman's furthest south excursion along the same giant ledge system.
This helps us eliminate (at least for the first pass) a lot of difficult ground. His notes contain a lot of detail and we can assume they didn't come across anything suspicious.
These are excellent reference photos, especially for the snow/ice conditions a month after Matt's disappearance.
He might be contacted to see if he can be of any help with information about Matt
F
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pacarockhound
Social climber
Escondido CA
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Sep 16, 2013 - 08:32pm PT
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CTadlock --- thank you!!!
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pacarockhound
Social climber
Escondido CA
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Sep 16, 2013 - 08:34pm PT
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High Traverse - thank you for reposting that link to photos. What a great reference they are!
Cyduke - thank you for posting that link.
Will someone be contacting the photographer to see if he noticed anything unusual?
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Dan Watson
climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Sep 17, 2013 - 03:33pm PT
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Here's an update on the Mammoth Lakes missing person investigation. I just got back after being out of town for over one week. Detective Hornbeck finally located Morales. He didn't have any valuable information, but believed that if he reviewed the missing pages, that could trigger his memory. This information has been provided to Jill and Tiffany who will follow-up with Morales.
Detective Hornbeck has been in contact with the Bethlehem Sergeant who is handling their missing person investigation. All of our reports and files have been sent to him. They will be exchanging any information they discover.
Hornbeck was also able to access Matt's work e-mails. Nothing of value was there. It was all work related.
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LAhiker
Social climber
Los Angeles
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Sep 17, 2013 - 04:06pm PT
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Thanks for the update, Chief Watson! I'm glad Tiffany and Jill will be able to follow up with Morales.
It's great that your department and the Bethlehem police department will be sharing all info in their respective missing persons cases.
Regarding Matt's email accounts, I hope his Hotmail account proves more fruitful.
I also hope that details of Matt's work emails can be provided to the family. Because Matt didn't have a smartphone and apparently send all email from the Mammoth library, even the timing of the emails he sent can contribute to a detailed picture of his habits while in Mammoth and especially to an understanding of what he did in the last few days before July 17th.
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Supermama
Social climber
pa
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Sep 17, 2013 - 07:32pm PT
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ctadlock....Thank you for all of your efforts and report! This will definitely close in the search area.
High Traverse...Thank you for the photos and deductive reasoning. I agree the family should try to contact the photographer.
Dan Watson...thank you for your follow through! Knowing that every rock has been turned over and every effort to find Matt has been made will bring peace to those who are missing him.
The community is holding a fund raiser to help in the search efforts. We haven't given up hope. Please know that all of the searchers' time, energy and knowledge of climbing and teamwork have not gone unnoticed. You all are an amazing group of people. Thank you for trying!
Supermama
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