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MelissaSimock
climber
Los Angeles
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Aug 16, 2013 - 01:54pm PT
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http://youtu.be/nPUhbYR1W6M
Here is a video to help get the information regarding Matt's disappearance out to as many people as possible. PLEASE SHARE!!!
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mattyj
Mountain climber
Truckee
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Aug 16, 2013 - 02:03pm PT
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check out mt ritter or banner peak while I wait?
It's very unclear whether the monologue in the video, especially the statement above, are direct quotes from messages Matt wrote or if they were made up to provide context to his disappearance.
I bring this up because while I've heard about guidebook pages ripped out, conversations with others etc I don't think there's been anything posted on this thread or facebook that so directly indicates plans to do Ritter / Banner.
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
extraordinaire
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Aug 16, 2013 - 02:10pm PT
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Erie, but very effective video. Thanks.
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TwistedCrank
climber
Bungwater Hollow, Ida-ho
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Aug 16, 2013 - 02:45pm PT
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Tear the page out, put it in a zip lock.
Better than carrying the whole book or having to find a Xerox machine.
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mattyj
Mountain climber
Truckee
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Aug 16, 2013 - 03:04pm PT
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Ron, I don't get it either but plenty of people seem to do it. Especially if you're not local to the area and won't be pulling the guidebook off your shelf every weekend for years to come.
I wouldn't read too much into that bit of information.
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
Potemkin Village
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Aug 16, 2013 - 03:12pm PT
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re: hand-launched local drones in SAR
it doesnt cost too much and goes .5 miles and is ultra light weight.
Your video shows the incredile progress of the field.
In addition to the drones, the lazyboys, the internet, it is obvious we would need in situ an attendant to attend a fueling station. But this too could be quickly worked out.
Amazing concept, though. I wish it were available today for you and Matt.
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ionlyski
Trad climber
Kalispell, Montana
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Aug 16, 2013 - 03:12pm PT
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I've done it several times in the alpine. Big giant book, route too complicated to jot it all down and out come the pages. I usually use a blade to make a nice cut then my wife takes it to a lady at her school to tape it back in and you hardly notice it.
Haven't bothered in years though, I suppose only if I were worried about the route.
Arne
edit-that's one of my beefs with the big "best of" guide books that are so popular now. They're not meant to be carried into the mountains, just for cragging.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Aug 16, 2013 - 03:23pm PT
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I took off for a few weeks and did nothing but climb 14'ers in Colorado to get my butt into shape. I'm a stickler for weight, so I always just cut out the map with my knife.
So yeah, I've done this a LOT.
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SalNichols
Big Wall climber
Richmond, CA
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Aug 16, 2013 - 05:22pm PT
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For what it's worth:
IMHO the odds that Matthew went off the grid are pretty low. Even for someone accustomed to being alone, his family appears to be used to hearing from him regularly. If there was nothing "off" in his last conversation with his dad, taking a powder is unlikely.
Has anyone obtained the campground registers for the Mammoth campgrounds for the period that Matthew was known to be in residence? Somewhere in that list of people may be the one person that Matthew may have spoken with about his plans.
Did Matthew make any large withdrawals from his bank account to pay for his car repairs? I'm sorry to bring this up, but If he had a bit of cash on him, someone might have wanted it.
I was trying to put myself in Matthews shoes this morning, particularly after reading Cragmans TR. if I'm unfamiliar with an area, and I'm not carrying a topo, I tend to follow the road MOST traveled. That might not be the same approach taken by someone intimately familiar with the area. If I am carrying a topo, I'd probably trend towards the most direct route, which has in the past led me into dead end dangerous stream crossings.
If he signed the register of Michael Minaret, then its safe to assume that hes in the habit of signing registers. Thus, we do know that he never made the summits of either Banner or Ritter, given that he didn't sign the registers.
It's pretty clear that he was planning a day hike/climb. He didn't have wheels, and you have no evidence of him being on public transportation on the 17th. What if he left from Mammoth instead of June Lake? Where could he get into trouble along that route?
Ask yourself: what route would someone unfamiliar with the area take? Consider especially that he was confident in his ability to operate at ultra marathon like distances.
Get those campground registers and start interviewing people. Begin with the campsites closest to him. Just in case, I'd run a criminal data base check on every name in the register. You never know.
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay
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Aug 16, 2013 - 06:50pm PT
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...staring at images of rocks and ice...
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Aug 16, 2013 - 07:18pm PT
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Back in the 80's, hitching 395 was pretty safe. I could hitch from Bishop to Lee Vining, over the pass and into the valley faster than I could drive my constantly ailing VW van.
I got picked up by some weird characters, and we now all know that hitch hiking is a way to get nabbed by a freak.
Was he hitching around?
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
extraordinaire
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Aug 16, 2013 - 08:30pm PT
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I tend to follow the road MOST traveled. The most obvious approach to the Ritter/ Banner area is Agnew Meadows trailhead to Shadow Lake, Ediza etc.
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SalNichols
Big Wall climber
Richmond, CA
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Aug 16, 2013 - 08:38pm PT
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If he went into the Minarets via the Shadow Lake drainage, he may have returned to it to access Ritter, the trail being familiar to him.
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay
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Aug 16, 2013 - 08:56pm PT
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We now have available a 23-minute Blue Ray disk (about 20 gig) for people who can display this on a large monitor. The image quality is not generally quite high enough to spot people, but it has time codes on each frame and we are extracting high res still frames that are more detailed. If you review this video and send us the time code for an area of special interest, we can respond with a higher res image of that specific area. People in the Santa Cruz area could stop by the house and pick up a copy, or perhaps sit and look at it with us. I left a copy at Pacific Edge.
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
Potemkin Village
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Aug 16, 2013 - 09:05pm PT
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Tom, perhaps this has already been mentioned.
Could you break your video up into 2G files or so and then upload them to the internet to some file sharing site? Dropbox, eg, even Pirate Bay. Start with a sample, maybe, so we can get some idea of it.
I'd be happy to look through some pieces of it and report back promising areas for high resolution scrutiny.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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Aug 16, 2013 - 09:50pm PT
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Those June Lake guys are elitist...Next time start from Agnew Meadows instead of June Lake...
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Lori Fairchild
Social climber
Lehighton
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Aug 16, 2013 - 10:09pm PT
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Has anyone checked the Agnews Meadow area? ---Posted on facebook
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