Thanks for that latest link..
Is there any way friends of Tom can help in the search and rescue ?
Its greatly appreciated if any Ranger could let us know.
Thanks
I'm not a Search and Rescue guy, but I am a Volunteer Wilderness Ranger on the west side of the Sierra, and work with them occasionally.
Generally speaking, the Search and Rescue folks prefer that everyone else stay off the mountain in question.
They can generally get all the people they need, and more importantly, they are people who know HOW to look and WHERE to look.
One of the special skills that comes into play is TRACKING, highly specialized and difficult, that those who are skilled in utilize to look for evidence of a hiker's path. When a bunch of people start walking through an area, those tracks are destroyed, and the evidence is lost.
Right now, helicopters and perhaps planes are being used. With more random people on the ground, they have to check every single one of them out...distracting them from the search. Often, well-meaning people get themselves into terrain and altitude for which they are not prepared...and create secondary rescue needs.
This sort of search is a complex process. The first part involves a "hasty search", designed to look quickly in the most likely places where a person could be where they might be sitting, injured.
Once that has happened, there is a progressive spreading of the search pattern, from more likely to less likely, and farther away...while at the same time trying to get ahold of others who might have seen him, or hiked with him.
All of this has to be carefully tracked on maps, so as to not leave any terrain not searched.
SAR usually do their best jobs when they are left to it. If they need help, they are not shy about asking for it.
Looking on White Mountain is not neccessary. Easy enough to check if he slept in his motel that night. Certainly his hiking companions would know. Certainly the motel would know if he'd checked out. Presumably other hikers gave his appearance and what he was wearing...they are probably who reported him missing.
He signed the register.
