I have been glued to my PC since the first posting. There has been a lot of information presented on the Whitney board about times, locations and equipment. I hope the info is helpful to the SAR team.
I have approached Whitney from the back side more than 25 times with a couple of trips occurring in early to mid November. I know the trail well enough to stay on it in snow, but having said that there are so many variables in this situation.
My first thought after Mike indicated that he saw Wade around 2pm about 2/3 the way up the switchbacks bothered me. Then today, there was a posting from someone seeing Wade near the crest around 3pm.
Several years ago, my daughter and I were camped at the trans. Between 4pm and 7pm it rained with cloud cover down the back side. Around 7:15 a woman came by and we chatted. I asked her where is she camped thinking she day hiked from the backside. She then proceeded to tell me that she is on her way out to the Portal. I gave her the bad news, but she refused to listen to me and said that she'd continue to the Crabtree ranger station. At the point we talked, it was only an 1 1/2 hours back to the junction. Why would you continue down? Well she did. So it happens.
Plus, if the gentleman continued and ended up in the dark, another reason for heading down the wrong way.
Dug, as I said on the Whitney board, I wish I was up there. I feel so useless sitting here.
paul
