To the friends and family of Dawson, my sympathy and condolences.

I appreciate that for many in your situation, the prime mover is a drive to understand what could have happened, in an attempt to find closure.

Speaking as a physician with expertise in high altitude medical issues, there some things that jumped out at me, that we know for sure.

We know that Dawson was last seen at about 3pm, on the last two miles of trail to the summit. We now know that he was headed up, since he was found on the other side of the peak. He attempted to send a message down that he was later than he thought he'd be.

He was very very late in getting to the top. Probably at least 4 hours behind when he should have summitted. This says to me that he was moving very slowly, and was impaired in some way.

We know that he was not wearing a pack (by report). This means that the amount of water that he could have had was very limited. There are no places to get more water on the hike, once above guitar lake tarns (lakelets), so he would have been doing a very dry hike with minimal water. The atmosphere at this altitude is exceedingly dry---it sucks water right out of you.

With no pack, he probably had no sunscreen for reapplication. The sun is very intense up there. If you sunburn in an hour at sea level, you burn in 11 minutes on the summit. This is often not appreciated. This leads to increased water requirements.

Finally, there is the issue of altitude. Although approaching from the west, he had much more opportunity for acclimatization, than from the east, unless a person has considerable experience at 14,000 feet and above, it is surprising to most how it effects the body, and particularly the brain. There is 1/3 less oxygen at this elevation, and it COMMONLY causes problems with thinking and reasoning.

But one more relevant factor is his age. This is something none of us can escape. There is an illusion that is created by a person who is older, but very fit.....which is that they perceive that their physiology is that of a younger person, when it is not. An older person is more susceptible to the above factors, but their conditioning allows them to "push through" the difficulties---to their own detriment.

I seriously doubt that Dawson was thinking in terms of a shortcut, although that is possible. The trail runs over in the general direction of that side of the mountain, and he may simply have gotten off and continued where he thought it went. We don't know if he got to the top. Perhaps he signed the register, perhaps not. He may have sat on the top for a considerable amount of time, but got turned around in terms of where to go. He may have had in mind "follow the sun", knowing his camp was east of the peak. We'll never know.

I suspect that his severe lateness involved several of these medical issues, taken together. Each problem tends to make the others worse, and when imposed on a older person, can really add up.