Re: Hiker missing Bells/Pyramid (elks/aspen)

[Jennmartin14]

Thank you!! I have a better understanding now and will send this to others who asked too. Please update as soon as you can what the plan is today.

[vibeway]

I am curious about the use of and efficacy of thermal imaging. Was that used when the helicopter was up and will it be used when a plane and drones can get up there (when the weather improves)?

[whiskeyzulu]

You are asking a relevant question. Those IR assets exist, but we have not yet found a way to access them, but are working on it. Any help is appreciated. Please im me with ideas. I'll check with Sheriff to see if he wants to be contacted directly.

[bdloftin77]

I am curious about the use of and efficacy of thermal imaging. Was that used when the helicopter was up and will it be used when a plane and drones can get up there (when the weather improves)?

+1 That sounds like a good idea at least

[Mike Shiels]

I'm a retired AF Spec ops EO/IR operator with 3-4,000 flying hours utilizing thermal, low light and enhanced video turrets. I know everyone thinks these systems are fool proof and can find the proverbial needle in a haystack, but unfortunately that's just not the case. While we haved used these systems to hunt for bad guys down range they're mostly employed on known targets in known locations which allow us to find fix and finish the target. Broad area searches are compounded by multiple factors which limit the success of an IR system. Factors include heat signatures of the terrain (rocks emit heat and mask body heat), most folks venturing in this area would normally wear multiple layers of clothing which masks body heat, vertical terrain requires looking directly down into an area from directly overhead, and snow would blanket and IR signature. EO would however be fairly effective in daytime, but key pieces of info are critical such as hat color, backpack and jacket color, pants color, even boot color if bright is important to know and can help. He's a Marine, trained like me through multiple courses in land survival tactics, which would if he's able to require him to build or make temporary shelter using materials at hand like rocks, sticks, branches, leaves or even trash to insulate himself from the cold which also degrades any search capability.
He's a brother in arms, if I can be of any assistance please contact me at 540-907-5777.
Mike

[bichito]

I don't know if this would be of help, or if the info has been corrected:

1) The guy is in great shape and skilled in many levels.

2) Started late, left camping gear in car.

3) His phone pinged from the top.

Shouldn't that narrow the search area? He needed to get down fast, I would assume.

[Count40]

At this point, we can be certain that SAR and associated services are scouring the area and checking many options. This is the first fine weather window since Wednesday, and it should last till Tuesday. There will also be some other hikers on these peaks during this sunny dry spell.
As for narrowing down the search area, I just want to depict the kind of effort they have to handle when narrowed down to less than quarter mile.

These are pics taken in that terrain, South and North Maroon, where: I knew location of other hikers, they were moving (which makes it easier), I knew the color of their gear, and they were either right on the trail (blue arrow), or strayed into high contrast area (white rock band, pics with black arrow). On sunny low wind day. No pocket cracks like ones mentioned by Xterra.

As hurting and crushing this wait is, we can be sure that they are now putting best and hardest effort in it. Trust those climbers and pilots and keep them safe.
And, by the counts, there were couple of thousands of viewers of these postings who got involved one way or another.

Regardless of low resolution of these attachments, discerning was as hard in ten times higher res, and viewers could not point them. Black arrow pics: white and orange helmet, blue top. blue arrow: white, orange and black helmet.

20160912_134120_resized_resized.png (200.15 KiB) Viewed 4499 times

20160920_093915_resized_1_resized.png (231.05 KiB) Viewed 4499 times

20160920_094047_resized_1_resized.png (191.88 KiB) Viewed 4499 times

[Jennmartin14]

My goodness.. may God be with everyone in their favor!

[kushrocks]

Really hoping for a positive outcome on this one.

[bichito]

At this point, we can be certain that SAR and associated services are scouring the area and checking many options. This is the first fine weather window since Wednesday, and it should last till Tuesday. There will also be some other hikers on these peaks during this sunny dry spell.
As for narrowing down the search area, I just want to depict the kind of effort they have to handle when narrowed down to less than quarter mile.

These are pics taken in that terrain, South and North Maroon, where: I knew location of other hikers, they were moving (which makes it easier), I knew the color of their gear, and they were either right on the trail (blue arrow), or strayed into high contrast area (white rock band, pics with black arrow). On sunny low wind day. No pocket cracks like ones mentioned by Xterra.

As hurting and crushing this wait is, we can be sure that they are now putting best and hardest effort in it. Trust those climbers and pilots and keep them safe.
And, by the counts, there were couple of thousands of viewers of these postings who got involved one way or another.

Regardless of low resolution of these attachments, discerning was as hard in ten times higher res, and viewers could not point them. Black arrow pics: white and orange helmet, blue top. blue arrow: white, orange and black helmet.

20160912_134120_resized_resized.png

20160920_093915_resized_1_resized.png

20160920_094047_resized_1_resized.png

It would be a painful to come down those walls and steep scree healthy let alone hurt. Hopefully he is sheltering somewhere there.

[Rosso1223]

I did the traverse south to north on that day (Monday the 19th) and was the previously mentioned green tent at campsite 4. Summited south im guessing around 11am, passed two other guys on the way up who were only doing south. Met up with another hiker near the summit and we completed the rest of the hike together. If Dave was on his way up around that 11,12 i would imagine he would have had to cross paths with the two guys who were only doing south (both from boulder,guessing in their 30s or 40s) while they were on their decent. Those were the only people i saw on any of the routes. Only other peak baggers i came across that day were in the am around 8 leaving crater. A pair of guys lost looking for the pyramid trail who I gave directions to.

As far as the traverse there were a couple spots that I could see there being a higher level of danger. Decending the initial couple hundred feet from south were holding snow and def had some treacherous spots because of it, and then Decending north in that class 4 section a bit above the talus field was also holding snow/ice and made for a very tricky and awkward downclimb, though the exposure there wasn't anything life threatening if i remember correctly.

Hoping for good news, keeping him in my thoughts

[MountainRescue Aspen]

ISO (In Search Of)

Any Climbers, Hikers, Mountaineers or Photographers who may have seen the missing climber "Dave Cook" in the area of Maroon Lake or on the route to Crater lake

on TUESDAY 9/20/2016 between 08:00am -09:00am. He may have been in the company of other climbers during this period.

Calling ALL Pyramid / Bells Traverse / N. Maroon climbers on Tuesday Tuesday Tuesday 9/20/2016 Please reply with what you DID or DID NOT See on this day to

missions@mountainrescueaspen.org

Thank you in advance