On January 2 2025, the Inyo County Sheriff's Office requested mutual aid assistance in the search for a 29-year-old male reported as missing/overdue on a possible Mt. Whitney summit attempt. The subject was reported to have begun his summit attempt on December 30 and Inyo SAR began the search on January 2 concentrating on the area in the vicinity of the 11-mile Mt. Whitney trail from the Portal to Trail Crest with an aerial search using Fire Integrated Real-Time Intelligence System Program (FIRIS) aircraft and ground teams. Wind and weather conditons were not conducive to flight operations and personnel insertions in the North Fork Lone Pine Creek drainage (access to the Mountaineers Route and technical routes on the east face of Mt. Whitney). FIRIS flew on January 3 as well.
Eight team members from MOSAR responded to the Inyo SAR facility in Bishop at 0700 on January 4 to join the Inyo SAR briefing on search area conditions and field assignments for the day. 7 field teams were assigned search areas, with an Inyo SAR member assigned to each team as a team lead. MOSAR personnel were assigned search areas near Iceberg Lake, Upper Boy Scout Lake, and Lower Boy Scout Lake, and were flown by an Army Air Guard CH-47F Chinook (call sign Schooner 69) from Bishop to Lone Pine to pick up members of China Lake SAR.
Schooner 69 at the Bishop airport prior to boarding.
SAR teams loaded and on the way to Lone Pine to pick up additional teams.
From Lone Pine, Schooner 69 flew to Upper Boyscout Lake to drop off 2 field teams (10 personnel), then to Lower Boyscout Lake to drop 1 more team (4 personnel), and then to Iceberg Lake to drop the last team of 5. Schooner 69 returned to Bishop for fuel, then repositioned to Lone Pine to prepare for later personnel extractions.
The view of the Whitney Crest as the aircraft approached the first LZ. Image by J. Lipman
The landing zone (LZ) at Upper Boyscout Lake at approximately 11,300’ MSL.
2 field teams that disembarked at Upper Boyscout Lake, waiting for Schooner 69 to depart.
The field teams began to execute their search areas and after several hours the field team in the Upper Boyscout Lake search area located the search subject between the lake and Sakai Col at the base of the ridge dividing the Upper Boy Scout Lake drainage and the Iceberg Lake drainage at approximately 12,000' MSL. The subject was deceased and a cause of death has yet to be determined.
The Upper Boy Scout Lake search area.
Due to the lateness of the day, Inyo SAR leadership elected to recover the remains the following day (Sunday, January 5) with assistance from California Highway Patrol Helicopter H80 from Apple Valley as they were expecting improving weather and wind conditions on the 5th. The field teams from Iceberg Lake, Upper Boyscout Lake, and the search area between convened at Upper Boy Scout Lake, and Schooner 69 loaded them and transported all personnel to the Lone Pine airport.
Departing the Upper Boy Scout Lake LZ for landing in Lone Pine.
IC: Inyo Sheriff's Office Ops Leader: Inyo SAR Responders: Lipman, Kelly, Brownlee, Anderson, Quiring, Bush, Huizingh, Beck