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SplitPants
Social climber
LA
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Aug 27, 2013 - 10:44pm PT
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HighTraverse +10
Dang you and cragman............it is almost eerie.........like you are inside Matt's brain (I mean that in a good way).
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Dan Watson
climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Aug 27, 2013 - 10:54pm PT
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We have not sought any search warrants, Splitpants. I asked my only part-time detective (I told you we're small!) to follow up with Rite-Aid. Frankly, I don't expect it would result in anything more than Matt purchasing routine items. But Detective Hornbeck and all of us has been pretty busy. We've had two bank robberies in 3 weeks, after 15 years without one. We captured one yesterday four hours after the robbery. There is a ton of follow-up work to do in addition to it being a very busy summer for us. I'd like someone to contact me off-line and provide a summary of details about the Rite-Aid purchase and e-mail account. I don't have time to go through over 1300 comments here.
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SplitPants
Social climber
LA
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Aug 27, 2013 - 10:58pm PT
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@ Dan Watson
10-4 will do. Sending you a PM
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Aug 27, 2013 - 11:06pm PT
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Dan
Thanks for all your assistance!
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kenish
Gym climber
Orange County, CA
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Aug 28, 2013 - 01:36am PT
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@supermama- No worries and no offense taken. It's great you're able to use your savvy and time to help. I read your post as frustration, and it sounded like you've never visited the slice of paradise that attracted Matt. So it's understandable to not realize the enormity of the search task...the volunteers, residents, SAR, and authorities sound just as frustrated they can't do more.
Cragman's report (link is in the post directly above) is a fascinating and poignant "must read".
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
extraordinaire
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Aug 28, 2013 - 02:20am PT
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With all the searches that's been done so far, I'm leaning more toward a head injury scenario like the recent Round Valley peak death (only fell 30 feet) - I'm assuming it's cuz he hit his head(?) Guessing that our "missing friend" fell on the approach to whatever he was going after(?). His long range abilities, and technical skills makes for a virtual crapshoot of posibilities - the perfect storm, if you will.
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SalNichols
Big Wall climber
Richmond, CA
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Aug 28, 2013 - 02:44am PT
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Just out of curiousity, what would the round trip from Mammoth or the Postpile to Iron Mtn entail?
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tdg119
Social climber
Northampton, PA
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Aug 28, 2013 - 10:34am PT
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In my case? 3 people - 2 to carry me and 1 to carry my drink...- Ron :)
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kenish
Gym climber
Orange County, CA
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Aug 28, 2013 - 12:12pm PT
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Do I recall correctly that Matt knew his car would be ready soon, just beofre he went missing? If so, he would know he was doing his last Sierra climb for the year before catching up with friends. It also sounds like he was a bit stir crazy and frustrated at being stuck in the area.
In the text that Jeg reported, a challenging/scary climb and several fun ones were mentioned. In Matt's situation and frame of mind would he be most likely to try something new? Or would he be likely to repeat the challenging climb to improve skills/technique, or redo a fun one as a celebratory sort of thing? I'm the last person who should try to get into Matt's head, but know his family and climbing friends are trying to do that. If a repeat climb is likely, maybe the text contains areas of interest. Apologies if I'm rehashing a closed issue, but I haven't seen the possibility of a repeat climb...maybe not in his nature or thought process.
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Aug 28, 2013 - 12:17pm PT
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thought it was already established he had partners then, for that one. I think we don't know.
Although a good question, I'm not sure it's of significance at this time.
SplitPants has become keeper of the non-official record.
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Aug 28, 2013 - 12:27pm PT
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kenish
all good questions. My guess (hunch) is that on his Clyde Minaret climb a week earlier he saw a lot of other routes to climb and he went back to climb one.
The possible routes go from The Watchtower all the way north to Banner. See Tom Cochrane's aerial survey.
http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/2205815/Ritter-Range-Aerial-Search-Imagery
Surprising to me is there was still a LOT of snow on the West faces of Ritter and Banner the first week in August.
See Just In Time's excellent TR and photos
http://www.supertopo.com/tr/Mt-Ritter/t12084n.html
I don't believe there's been a search of the "backsides" of the Minarets-Ritter-Banner but that would have been a real stretch for a day trip from the east side of the range.
Of course Matt could have fallen west from one of the saddles after coming from the east.
The west sides should not be ignored.
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schilds
Trad climber
eastside
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Aug 28, 2013 - 12:41pm PT
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Is it possible he would have found a partner from the bulletin board outside Mammoth Mountaineering? There are often notes there looking for partners, and just maybe there would be one still up from July. Might be worth looking and calling whoever has a note up to make sure they never hooked up with Matt. Even if it wasn't to climb on the 17th, possibly they could shed some light on his plans if he ever contacted them? Just a thought:)
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jeg
Social climber
center valley,Pa
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Aug 28, 2013 - 12:43pm PT
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After we left Matt on The 7th, all his climbs listed were solo. He climbed Clyde on July 11th. I was just stating the route for High Traverse who had questioned which Clyde route he did ALONE on the 11th. We new he climbed Clyde as posted 100's of threads ago.
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jeg
Social climber
center valley,Pa
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Aug 28, 2013 - 12:47pm PT
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We know he climbed alone from 7/8-7/13 and 7/15. I would be surprised if he sought out a partner for his last day. Plus he thought his last day in Mammoth were many days. The car place kept promising different days the car would be done. Matt was not known to do the same climb twice!!!
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jeg
Social climber
center valley,Pa
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Aug 28, 2013 - 12:50pm PT
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High Fructose...
Wow what?? There what is??? We posted threads ago what he climbed after we left him on July 7!!!
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jeg
Social climber
center valley,Pa
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Aug 28, 2013 - 01:01pm PT
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High Traverse... Posted may threads ago, not sure if you sw it..
Here is what my husband and friends search when they went to Mammoth...
North notch from Cecile lake
North east snow field up to notch
West side of notch and surrounding gullies
Climbed to south notch from Cecile lake
Traversed to amphitheater lake over Michael Adams saddle
Climbed amphitheater gully
Checked upper reaches of the 3 west shoots of micheal
Checked register at Star plaque
Cecile lake west shore and slopes
Slopes to the nw of iceberg lake
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LAhiker
Social climber
Los Angeles
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Aug 28, 2013 - 01:17pm PT
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Jill, is that the search that was done on August 11th through 15th by Shawn, Adam, Chris, and Frank?
If so, do you know whether SplitPants has the trip report from that search, so she can incorporate it into her document and the website she's working on?
Thanks!
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Aug 28, 2013 - 01:18pm PT
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Likely Scenario Hypothesis
Matt left early in the AM for a long day climbing trip to the Minarets/Ritter/Banner.
The objective was on the East side of the range, or possibly over South Notch to Adams/Michael/Eichorn. (equal likelihoods)
Matt planned to return July 17th night. Possibly late that night.
Matt was solo
He anticipated snow/ice travel (South Notch) or climbing.
He had a pre-arranged ride or hitchhiked to Minarets Summit (just west of ski area parking lot) or all the way to TH at Agnews Meadow/Devils Postpile. (all equal likelihoods)
He made it to one of the trailheads and set out.
He made it to the base of his climbing objective.
Matt fell sometime during his climb.
=
There are other possible scenarios which I consider less likely.
in order of my estimated decreasing likelihood
1 - Fell on descent from the climb (tired)
2 - Fell on approach to the climb
3 - Fell down west side from one of the saddles/passes/notches/peaks (tired, careless)
4 - Fell into either Minarets or Shadow creek.
5 - Was struck walking along Minarets road between ski area and TH
6 - Intended climb was on the west side
7 - Was abducted by his ride
8 - Never connected with a ride- but then what?
For clarity, I've left out the supporting facts.
We can make guesses of his intended climb but that doesn't narrow the search area much as there are big east facing snowfields/glaciers from The Watchtower at the south, all the way to Banner at the north end of the range, and on the west side of at least Banner/Ritter
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