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apogee
climber
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
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Sep 20, 2015 - 11:29am PT
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And illegitimus non carborundum, too!
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Bargainhunter
climber
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Sep 20, 2015 - 02:49pm PT
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Ricky D wrote I've shot some dude who probably did die
There is a story here, we are listening...
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rookers
Trad climber
Boulder, CO
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Sep 28, 2015 - 12:34pm PT
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Psycho Kenny?
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duke of puke
climber
boulder, co
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Sep 28, 2015 - 12:37pm PT
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Naaa... Kenny may have been psycho, but he wasn't vindictive. Has anybody looked at their life insurance policies?
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fear
Ice climber
hartford, ct
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Sep 28, 2015 - 12:41pm PT
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Tunnels built by the Illuminati under Walmart and now these serial killings?
Related?
:)
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Inner City
Trad climber
East Bay
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Sep 28, 2015 - 03:53pm PT
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Has it been concluded that these were just three random unrelated events...
Werner?
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reveriesof
Social climber
San Francisco
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On September 13th, just a few days into the SAR efforts to find Timothy Nolan, I ventured up to Vogelsang via Lyell Canyon. As a frequent solo hiker, I was conscious the entire trip that a fellow adventurer was lost, injured, or dead, probably within a small radius radiating from Vogelsang, with a high probability of being within 100 yards of a trail.
I was disheartened to learn when I returned to the city that very day his body had been discovered off the High Sierra Trail Camp loop trail. I have been further troubled by the paucity of information about his death, and doubly so by the vague accounts of the other recent deaths in the park. For those of you who are as interested and concerned about these occurrences as I am, I wanted to share what I know about the conditions on the ground around this time and what I learned from the YOSAR team searching for Timothy, and what I've gleaned from the internet after the fact (not much).
Lets quell the conspiracy theories: the first death occurred 8/12/15 when James Millet Jr suffered a fatal fall in the North Dome vicinity. You can google his obituary. Unfortunately nobody knew James was climbing in Yosemite, and it took nearly three weeks before anyone thought to look for him. It's impossible to say whether this lapse cost him his life. I can appreciate the humor that people have shown in this thread, as well as the compassion that others have for the feelings of the families. But to insinuate in utter ignorance that he was murdered is grotesque--it's also really normal for people to jump to the worst conclusions, and the less you know the worse you assume. So I'm not judging anyone here.
Everyone on this forum knows you're more likely to get murdered in the city or the 'burbs. Most of us also know that the very rocks and chasms that make Yosemite so especially beautiful also make it especially dangerous. I haven't found an official death registry for the NPS, but by googling around I get the impression that about a dozen people might die in Yosemite in a year. Of the 4 million people that visit the park every year, each has a better than 99.999997% chance of living to tweet the selfie. I think it is more illuminating to read the YOSAR logs about the hikers and climbers who get rescued, those who survive.
The first thing to consider about the two later deaths: Yosemite during this time was hot and smoky. Not only was Tenaya Canyon burning, prevailing winds were pushing smoke from the much larger northern fires into a plume spanning from Caribou (Lassen) at least as far south as Yosemite. Dangerous levels of air pollution were being warned against by the weather service forecasts and the park service. I served a tourist group breakfast in San Francisco and they reported 9/8 that they couldn't see a thing in Yosemite. Indeed, I nearly turned around as I drove through the thick belt of grimy air pervading altitudes from 3-5k. The haze persisted well up to Tuolumne Meadows, where a few small, contained fires were still smoldering.
Under these circumstances, I am not in the least surprised if dayhikers are disappearing in Yosemite. The kid who disappeared on the trail from Tamarack Flat, evidently didn't tell anyone where he was going, had surprised his roommates by shaving his head before he disappeared, his parents were "concerned about his well-being", seems like a troubled young man but I am drawing big conclusions here.
Timothy was out on a 6 day excursion, and he was equipped for it. I was shown photos of his gear by SAR members, it represented a fair sample of a high-end backpacker's catalog. I do not know how experienced he was at using it, nor do I know what mixture of confidence and naivety (always a delicate balance in my own trip planning) inspired him to undertake such a big trip by himself.
The YOSAR copter made brief excursions around the nooks of the Vogelsang and Echo Creek drainages between breaks in the rolling storms sweeping the high country. Two ground searchers came up over Vogelsang Pass to see if anyone had seen his gear set up along the way. It appears he disappeared while moving between camps.
As I hiked out Rafferty Creek, two more SAR crew were coming up with a cattle dog, the luckiest dog in the world to hike these forbidden trails. They informed me that Timothy's phone pinged a tower on Sentinel Dome on 9/4, his departure day. Not much of a clue. They were planning to search the way by Emeric Lake down to Merced Camp, weather permitting. When I had departed Vogelsang Camp that morning it was just beginning to snow, though a mere 1000 ft below Tuolumne Pass I had already peeled off my layers.
The Mariposa County Sheriff takes responsibility for the autopsies of Yosemite's dead. I think anyone willing to take a drive to their headquarters could procure at least redacted information about cause and time of death of these people. Often these situations began with a lapse in judgment or an accident, that sparks a downward spiral of mistakes and confusion. It could be be a rockfall, a slip, illness, altitude, doesn't take a lot of imagination.
Personally, I think the NPS would do better to publish this information. I have discovered a movement of theorists who think there is an NPS cover up of potentially supernatural phenomena causing hikers to *sometimes* disappear in clusters. I told an oldtimer about this theory and he agreed: "they do disappear in clusters, it's called summer!" Sometimes telling people the truth is better than the alternative.
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Fossil climber
Trad climber
Atlin, B. C.
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Herb Swedlund told me story of a "murder" in Yosemite years ago.
He was working for YP&&CCo, (I seem to recall he was a wine steward for the Ahwahnee)living in employee housing with a room mate. One morning his room mate left while he was asleep. When he awoke he saw thatthe room mate had had a huge nosebleed in bed and his pillow was soaked with blood. Herb thought it had great potential for a joke, so he left a note on the bed saying "The body is in the closet" and went off to work. A maid came in later and went hysterical, called the rangers. As NPS at that time didn't have anyone qualified to handle a murder investigation, they sealed the room and called in the FBI.
Good joke. Job terminated.
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ms55401
Trad climber
minneapolis, mn
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My attention span is short. How did the three die.
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Deacon
Boulder climber
lancaster ca
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Dec 24, 2015 - 02:01pm PT
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George Penca is alive and well in Hawthorne, CA. Why after all this time you can't find the media announcement can't say but he's there.
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c wilmot
climber
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Dec 25, 2015 - 12:37pm PT
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What happened to George Penca then?
Why did he let a search for him continue when he was not lost?
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
ne'er–do–well
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Dec 25, 2015 - 09:52pm PT
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.. Young Male Solo Hikers .. One of my best friends/ relatives did Illiluoette Canyon up and back , Yosemite creek from SR 120 to the valley, and LeConte gulley, all solo multi-days in the 70s. Just a beach rat from Orange County too.
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