Hiker missing since Friday

[Cy Kaicener]

Deborah Huglin is still missing near the PCT
http://www.towncrier.com/stories/story.2.20080327.html

[Hikin_Jim]

Thanks for posting this, Cy. I wasn't even aware that someone was missing.

Sigh. Not good. They found her vehicle. They found articles of her clothing (jackets) on the trail. These two facts establish that she was out in the trail and that she probably didn't leave.

Why would any hiker in their right mind discard their jacket out on the trail? She apparently made it to the point where the Apple Can. Tr. joins the PCT. Her lost clothing was there. The conditions were described as icy. Kind of sounds like she was changing into her jacket, lost her footing, and went over the side. If so, it would be odd that they didn't find her, but then again, there was that Boy Scout some years ago that they were pretty sure they knew the approx. area he went over the side and they never did find him.

They've called off the search. Maybe she'll be the next "John Donavon." (I think that was the name of the guy who went missing and was found a year or so later) Sad.

Potentially, this is another ice related accident. That frozen stuff is serious business.

[simonov]

Why would any hiker in their right mind discard their jacket out on the trail?

Indicates foul play to me.

[lipbiter]

think hypothermia, guys.

[FIGHT ON]

i agree with lipbiter. I saw a program on a guy near everest and he was taking off his clothes when it was freezing.

[dhstein313]

Paradoxical undressing
20% to 50% of hypothermal deaths are associated with a phenomenon known as paradoxical undressing. This typically occurs during moderate to severe hypothermia as the victim becomes disoriented, confused, and combative. The hypothermic victim may begin discarding the clothing he or she has been wearing, which in turn increases the rate of temperature loss.[5] There have been several published case studies of victims throwing off their clothes before help reached them. [6]

Rescuers who are trained in mountain survival techniques have been taught to expect this effect. However, the phenomenon still regularly leads police to assume incorrectly that urban victims of hypothermia have been subjected to a sexual assault.[citation needed]

One explanation for the effect is a cold-induced malfunction of the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that regulates body temperature. Another explanation is that the muscles contracting peripheral blood vessels become exhausted (known as a loss of vasomoter tone) and relax, leading to a sudden surge of blood (and heat) to the extremities, fooling the victim into feeling warm. (These are cited from the magazine "New Scientist" and are not Journal articles)

[Hikin_Jim]

I had thought of that too which is why I put "potentially" into my wording.

Just thinking of the way I hike, if I got to the top of a long grade, saw a lot of the frozen stuff, and the trail flattened out, I might very well pull out a coat. I imagined her losing her footing at that point and ... you know the rest. I didn't go with the hypothermic undressing because I reasoned that she would have shed other gear prior to that point and no other gear was found. Also, she was out for a day hike from what I was reading in the articles, and there's no indication that she was running late, a situation that would fit with hypothermia. Of course this is all speculation on my part. Foul play, hypothermia, and ice accident are all quite plausible. For all we know, she could have stopped at that point, pulled out her jacket because her lunch was immediately under it and then walked off after lunch with out it and is miles away from where the clothing was found. Of course, something like this has never happened to me (no fair asking about my new trekking poles) but I've heard of things like this occuring.

If SAR couldn't find her in a multi day search, then perhaps we may never know.

[Rick M]

I've had this happen to me once and seen it happen several times to others. Hiking up hill and get hot, take off jacket and no room in day pack so it gets jerry-rigged on the outside of the pack or around neck or waist or where ever and soon drops off unnoticed (in addition to all those other possibilities mentioned)...I saw many people do this in the past three days.

[Tim Le]

Man, this is not good.

Btw, it was John Donovan that went missing and found a year later. They probably would never have found him if two other missing hikers (the couple from Texas here for a convention) didn't stumble into his abandoned camp. It was in a really rugged, deep canyon. Was it Tahquitz Canyon? Does anyone from RMRU know the coordinates of where the camp was found? I've been looking at RMRU mission reports and trying to find out where people are getting lost on the topos.