I put in one search for David O'Sullivan when I was going to be out that way.
https://caltopo.com/m/NJAA Unfortunately, it was fruitless.
They too (those searching for David) have started searching in places where it would make little sense for him to be, but as we know...
My search was over in the Tahquitz Creek drainage which is a natural terrain trap for anyone lost to fall into. It's pretty mellow through Tahquitz Valley, and then it drops off and gets super vertical as you head east. This is where John Donavon was found by accident (by lost hikers!) a year or so after any official searching had been abandoned.
I still think David is somewhere on the N side of Fuller Ridge, but who knows? The terrain is SO steep over there that searching where he might have slid to would be quite difficult -- if indeed that's what happened. We have far fewer clues with David.
There's no
- List of points of interest
- Rental car parked at a specific location
- Cell phone ping
- Sales receipts
- List of contents from a car trunk
- Phone call the morning of
We've just got that he was headed north on the PCT and that he was last seen in Idyllwild.
HJ
P.S. At some point, they did some kind of aerial search. I charted some points based on that searching... I think. My memory is vague on this point. But I do have this map of the area where I plotted some points of interest:
https://caltopo.com/m/0P5E I don't recall where all the data on the heights of waterfalls etc. came from.
I myself would first suspect some areas along the north side of Fuller Ridge. If one misses a turn in the trail, altogether easy over there in snow, then one could easily get into some sketchy stuff from which it would be difficult to recover even if one did not slip and fall. If one slipped and fell... whoosh. You'd be in for a fast ride with a (very) abrupt stop.