Important!!!! - Ellen Coleman is missing

[KathyW]

Ellen is fast and strong, so if the other hikers didn't see her along the regular route to Round Valley she might have headed straight for Tamarack Valley from near Long Valley.

The weather is supposed to start clearing up tomorrow.

[magikwalt]

Kathy's thoughts mirror my own as to Ellen's route. I would believe the route up was through Tamarask. I don't know if she knew of the route that moves off before crossing the stream or not. I thought she entered Tamarask from the trail at the water pipe when she got off course and was scratched so badly.

During my hike with her over on San G she mentioned that she didn't see very well and that it was one of the reasons she got off course so much. Perhaps the snow or wind made this worse.

I don't have shoe shoes but I would be available to go up tomorrow. I do have a GPS and have marked out various points throughout the Tamarisk Camp area.

If I can help please let me know.

Walt

[Jim Bakos]

Hey gang:

Seriously, do you think Ellen would have taken the Sid Davis drainage to the peak? That's a heavy coverage area tomorrow. If she's done it in the past, stands to reason she "might" do it again.

Also: I must add that you DO NOT have tacit approval from RMRU to go out on your own private search (I've already been spanked for my previous post). I don't want to encourage anyone to venture into harsh conditions, perhaps putting their lives at risk.

There is no "wink, wink" here. And that's my "official" statement.

Sorry to have to say that, but rules are rules...

You may contact me off the board at: jim-at-bakos-dot-org (obviously fixing the email address, placed that way so spam bots don't attack me).

--Jim

[KathyW]

Ellen has depth perception problems. I know that is difficult for her to hike in the dark with a headlamp due to these problems. I wonder if she would have the same problems in the snow.

She was interested in the route the old trail takes from Tamarack Valley to Mt San Jacinto and it's odd that nobody saw her along the way to Round Valley.

I wish I could do more to help - the thought of heading up there tomorrow to look keeps crossing my mind too.

[halhiker]

Just got home and this is horrific news. I now wish I had not had a family day on Sat. and had been able to accompany Ellen on this outing.

My family had her in our prayers tonight and I hope she was well prepared and able to dig in to escape the terrible conditions today.

I hope she did not follow my footprints up toward Miller Peak because the snow condition was not that good and it's pretty steep over there.

Let's pray for some good news tomorrow.

Hal

[zippetydude]

Okay, I've canceled my work schedule for tomorrow and talked to Perry. He, I, and ss will be heading up first thing. All three of us can move fast, and from the suggestions here it seems like we have some reasonable places to look. If each one of you out there would pray to God that we cover enough area fast enough, we probably have a reasonable chance of seeing a certain blond smiling at us in the near future. Anyone with any news, please post.

z

[Bob R]

My team (China Lake MRG) was on the search this afternoon. Wind and snow conditions up there were every bit as bad as advertised. However, the good news is that the temperatures were moderate (I didn't take any readings). If Ellen was able to take shelter out of the wind and had some decent clothing for warmth, there is great hope.

I and some others had to come home tonight, but we have fresh troops leaving at 5 in the morning.

I will upload some pictures in a little while, but they will not show anything of significance: only give an idea of the conditions today--which promise to be vastly improved tomorrow.

Edit: Pictures are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/rockwellb/ ... 846662034/

Bob R

[lee]

Kathy, zippetydude: I just posted the round trip GPS track from my Saturday hike (two pictures) here:
http://hiking.meetup.com/217/photos/290643/3139988/
and here:
http://hiking.meetup.com/217/photos/290643/3139989/

Ed and 3 others from my group continued on to the peak from where I and the rest of the group stopped and waited for them.

[Cy Kaicener]

Jim - I cant get anything at all on www.rmru.org Does that mean they are working on posting the search details.? There is a chance that she is holed up at the hut on the top. I googled Ellen Coleman missing on Mt San Jacinto and saw many news sources. Here is a local one
http://www.pe.com/localnews/rivcounty/s ... 5f5f2.html

[KathyW]

Lee:

It looks like you guys left the trail and went over to Tamarack and up to Mt San Jacinto via Miller Peak. Now I wonder if Ellen went out to Round Valley and that's why you didn't see her anywhere. Did you guys break trail all the way or were you following someone else's footsteps?

BobR and JimB - thanks for the updates.

Kathy