Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Records kept on Whitney rescues/deaths dayhikes vs overnight

Is there a central place (online) where records are compiled on Whitney rescues/deaths, specifically whether the victims were dayhikers vs overnighters? It's just curiosity on my part. From my distant observations and amateur personal experience, it seems to me that dayhikers get into more danger than those heading to Whitney for an overnight (or more). Thoughts?

There may not be a central file, but all the hikers (day or overnight) I have known to have perished or got lost were "experienced hikers."

They seemed to have fallen under that category.

I'm thinking of all the hikers in recent years who've missed the turn in the trail above Mirror Lake and fallen off the cliff. If I remember correctly, they were all experienced hikers, but they were also all dayhikers coming down at night, alone.

It might be possible that the Inyo County Sheriff records system contains that information. I'll make a few telephone calls and see what I can find out. If those records are in a computer database, a word search might be the appropriate way to gather data.

Your theory about day hikers vs. multiday hikers might be reasonable when we consider day-trippers are in a bigger hurry to get their Whitney trophy.

Let us know if you find record of a missing or deceased hiker who was not reported as "experienced" by his or her friends. Guinness may want to know. But more seriously...

It wouldn't be surprising for campers descending from Trail Camp in daylight after a night's sleep to do better at trail finding that day hikers. A more interesting statistic might be the numbers of missing or deceased who started up the trail alone vs the number who split from their group along the trail when they got too tired or too sick to keep up.

Dale B. Dalrymple

As Dale points out, “experienced” is in the eye of the beholder. Back in January, two “very experienced” hikers started up Baldy. One was practically a local legend. They climbed partway up and realized they didn’t have time to complete the route they had planned. They had crampons and axes, but they didn’t feel comfortable descending the icy snow they had just ascended. It was the middle of a sunny day, so they just pushed their Spot 911 buttons and waited for the helicopter. It was the second rescue for the “local legend.” Amazingly, they thought that they had exercised good judgement, except that maybe they should have brought helmets. Their friends on the website where I read this seemed to think they had done everything right. They even got defensive when I dared to post that you shouldn’t climb up something that you can’t climb back down.

I’m sure that the majority of people who fall off a cliff while staggering down in the dark are day hikers. However, I think other hazards don’t care whether the victim slept at the Portal or on the mountain. The last time I dayhiked the main trail, a bunch of people were helping a backpacker with altitude problems. She died. A friend of mine fell on the East Face route, turning a two-day trip into a three-day trip. They made it to a phone just as the SAR helicopter was about to take off. I once watched a backpacker who fell and broke his leg get a ride in a SAR helicopter. And I recall a few deaths on the Mountaineers’ Route involving backpackers falling.

Experience and judgement affect the outcome more than the presence of a sleeping bag.

So far no response from Inyo Sheriff, but Inyo and China Lake SARs keep mission reports that go back several years. The China Lake reports are called "Talus Piles", and Inyo's are "Mission Reports".

http://www.clmrg.org/
www.inyosar.com

You have to browse through them to find the Whitney missions, and attempt to find the information you want.

Thank you for searching these out! I'll report back what I find.

When compiling statistics, you might want to look at summer vs. winter incidents. It's such a different experience when snow and ice are present that the numbers should be separated.

There is a good book on 550 fatal accidents in the Grand Canyon called.... "Death in the Grand Canyon"

book

maybe someone will write one titled "Whoops on Whitney"

I've started a compilation of Whitney rescues and recoveries here:

    Mt Whitney SAR activity: Injury, Rescue, Deaths, Recovery

Harvey, you author the book and I will buy it.