Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Lost Tent(Orange MT Hardware) at Trail Camp

I lost Orange MT. Hardware Tent at Trail Camp.(Nov 2014)
Bunch of camping gears inside, and my CA ID was in there also.

If anyone found it, please let me know at followings with lots pictures around so that i could go to search up there.

Kevin
Text: 213-505-7582
kevinw.chun@gmail.com

Kevin:

So sorry about the tent.

But I have to say, given the date and the few details you provide, there has GOT to be an interesting back story here. Can you fill us in on the trip, [how the tent was lost, etc? It could help locate it.

Kevin posted a picture of his tent. I would also like to read the story.



Edit: Maybe someone who posts on the other forum could cross-post this for Kevin.

Thanks Steve for linking the picture!!!

The picture was taken when I started to the summit at 11/28/14 Thanks Giving Day of last year.

It might be silly story, but I would tell you guys because the incident was really valuable lesson for me.

After I failed to reach the summit at the point remaining 1 miles at April, 2014, I decided to try again by solo at November Holiday. But, problem was that I was so beginner. I had only two hiking experiences for the last ten years, one was the Whitney failed at April and another was Halfdome took 6 hours from happy isles to little Yosemite valley at 2013 summer. I know… I was too weak by junk foods and no exercise for my life.

Anyway, when I was on the summit by astronaut moving, it was almost 3pm, then 7pm when I was down to the Trail Camp.
In the darkness, my stupid Costco headlamp was dead, and I ate only one energy bar for whole day due to severe headache. (I didn’t even know it was due to high altitude sickness ) I was so freezing, and could not find the tent, then panic to search for 2 hours.

I gave up searching, and moved down alone in the total darkness. I lost the trail at Mirror lake once, and Outpost Camp to Whitney Zone again. When I lost again at Lone Pine Lake, I was finally exhausted and laid down waiting the rescue or whatever.
During my body was freezing, looking at beautiful milky way in the sky, I just realized I got Cell phone. Then, it was 3am when I arrived to the parking lot with cell phone flash light.

One more story…. when I turned on the heater in the car, the red gas lamp was blinking and I left my wallet in the lost tent. Ha ha~ ~

Trying to recover in the car without heater to save the gas until 7am, I borrowed $40 from the angel of hiker, Mr. Kovar(Thanks again~!!!!) and drove to LA home.

I had the search hiking 2 more times (X-mas and Feb 2015) after the lost, no luck yet. So, I am planning to get the trail camp again at 04/17/15. It will be the last chance without permit.

Lessons I have learned.
1. Have good headlamp: Now I carry 2 at all hikes(BD Icon and Storm )
2. Start as early as possible
3. If you can’t get the summit before noon, be clever to give up.
4. Fill full gas tank before parking at trail head
5. Carry emergency blanket all the time.
6. Study and prepared well before any hikes.
7. Never underestimate any mountains.

This was my silly short-version of 127 hours story.

For more information,

As in the photo, the tent was in the small camp site beside main trail just little down from the trail camp lake.

I left sleeping bag, 2 pad, burner, wallet, and other gears inside.

Even I searched 2 more times at last winter, I have not confirmed that the tent was gone from the exact lost site, due to heavy snow. Which means, the tent might be still in there.

Otherwise, it would be rolling around somewhere by wind...

Wow Kevin that is an incredible story. And honestly, thank you for having the courage to share it. I don't want to rub in the misery but I'm hopeful now you can kind of laugh about the travails as I found myself chuckling a bit at your misfortune. You really did make some mistakes that have cost others their lives and if conditions would have changed just a bit...

Oh and I hope you find your stuff. And I hope whoever finds it posts a picture of the recovery site so we can see what the campsite looks like.

Kevin, thanks so much for posting the story. I am sure glad you finally made it home after such an epic journey.

Tell us: How far off the main trail was your camp site? Is it just a few steps off the trail, or would the tent be out of sight for hikers? The reason I ask is that there have been a few people hiking up the trail -- one group in February. I am wondering if perhaps someone might have seen the tent and maybe recovered it.

But also, very strong winds blow through the area, and if your tent wasn't anchored down with tent stakes or tied to rocks, it has probably blown far from your camp site.

I did some quick Google Earth exploring and I think I found your coordinates. I'm betting you're tent was at
N39deg 33.82mins W118deg 32.53min

Nevermind the low resolution fuzzy close up area, I'm pretty sure this is the spot and that fuzzy stuff is rock outcrop. It also matches the verbal description, right off the trail below Trail Camp Lake.

Based on the way it was anchored down, it's probably now somewhere between Owen's Valley and Death Valley. But if it made it through the winter, I'd start looking at these coordinates.

Best of luck. I have a feeling this story isn't over yet!

Kevin,

Thanks for sharing the story of your epic adventure. On the plus side, your survival instincts are very good to have gotten you down alive and in one piece. And you had your car keys with you!

You could add one more thing to the list of lessons learned:
8. Never separate yourself from your wallet.

Hope you find your things.

SierraNevada: Awesome!

Great story...but let me clarify...you went to the summit by "astronaut moving"???

I would guess "astronaut moving" means moving slowly and steadily -- as an astronaut would do on a space-walk outside his space ship.

A thought just occurred to me: its possible that this tent just crawled into Moose's pack to be near most of the rest of the orange fabric on the planet.

I'll find that tent.

From SierraNevada post:
"I did some quick Google Earth exploring and I think I found your coordinates. I'm betting you're tent was at
N39deg 33.82mins W118deg 32.53min"

Hey Sierra,

I used GMAP4 to go to that location, and got different Lat Long. I found the coordinates to be: 36.563773N 118.275329W

You can input these coordinates into Google maps, and it will take you to the same location you show in your post.

Seems a bit off the beaten track, and in "protected" area. Unlikely, but who knows, it could still be there.

John,

I agree, that is well off the beaten track.

Anyone without knowledge of the area and a light source would have a problem finding this location.

The Google Earth push pin is right next to the trail. See the red marks on pieces of the trail:



It seems likely that someone has been by there.

Dale B. Dalrymple

Dale,
You are absolutely correct. Would seem unlikely that the tent is located at that location, but perhaps somewhere nearby. Possibly: 36.563250N 118.274900W ??

I Guess until someone actually goes and looks for it (and finds it) the mystery will remain unsolved

John, we're posting in slightly different units. You used decimal degrees and I broke it down into degrees and decimal minutes. If you convert between the two, the difference is very small, as shown by Dale. If you use Google Earth at ground level, you'll see that the push pin north of the trail fits the scenery a little better. Also, he stated that his tent was "right by the trail."

In any case, since we're so close, this really narrows down the location. If someone climbs a rock outcrop in that vicinity, they should see the orange tent - if its still there. I suspect its blown downhill somewhere, but maybe not too far since he had gear inside.

Well, just for the joy of hiking the main trail (also depending on weather), I might just go take a look around the middle of May, or early June.

Really enjoying this rally and comradery.. I'm planning on heading up Monday (weather permitting).. I'll try to keep an eye out for anything orange.

Kevin wrote that he was headed back up there on the 17th, last Friday. He'll be the guy with two headlamps on. I can't wait for the next chapter to this saga.

Hello, guys. Sorry for late report.

At last Saturday, 04/18/15, I finally confirmed that the tent was gone and disappeared at the site.
I don’t know how to link the photo here, but posted the picture in photo gallery.
I stayed and searched at the trail camp down to the consultation lake for 2 days, during my friends tried to the summit, but no luck.

Now, I could let my tent go. I will post story again if I got any unexpected lucky news.
Thanks for all you guys. I can’t resist to love mountain people like you guys…

BTW, we have really serious CA drought. There is no water source in Trail camp pond..

Here's your picture, Kevin. I think people could use your story to start loading a big rock inside their tent before they leave it for a day hike.

                   

I think you are just a little below Trail Camp. The pond there can never drain completely dry.

Making note to put some rocks in my tent and also at a pushpin in my GPS apps so I can find it later.