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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay
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i live in an area with mountain lions around all the time
my neighbors never allow their dogs and young children to roam free
if mountain lions liked people, you would read about it in the news every day until they were hunted to extinction like California grizzlies
we smell bad and taste bad from all the poisons in our diet
they watch us all the time
some young and uneducated ones are more curious about us
if you ever see one, that's because it's just curious to gauge your reaction
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WBraun
climber
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we smell bad and taste bad from all the poisons in our diet
So true ......
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SplitPants
Social climber
LA
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Outdoor Gal
SplitPants, thanks. I had actually PM'd the names of the Facebook folks to Dan Watson on Wednesday 8/28 (at the request of another Supertopo member) and heard back from him on 8/29 that he was going to forward that info to Detective Hornbeck. I was hoping that the witnesses would have been reached by now and questioned. Days have gone by at this point. These people allegedly talked to Matt in the days before he disappeared and he even apparently showed them his guidebook and discussed his plans. People are speculating ad nauseum about where Matt might have gone. These people might have a concrete lead to narrow the search area. If I were a family member, I would be asking today where this questioning stands.
I spoke to the detective handling the case this morning. He indicated he will take a look at the posts to facebook and get back to me. He already spoke to folks out at the campground and likely needs to cross check that information against the names of the individuals that posted to facebook (is my guess).
Thanks
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tdg119
Social climber
Northampton, PA
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Split - I will email you the details on the person. ` Ron
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LAhiker
Social climber
Los Angeles
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SplitPants and Outdoor Gal – Thanks for moving things forward with Detective Hornbeck regarding interviewing those people who had contact with Matt! Because it looks like the search window for this fall will close soon, I’m with you in hoping that those interviews can be conducted ASAP. Along with gaining access to Matt's email accounts, that could help narrow things down.
Cragman – my regards to your big toe! The surgery sounds painful and unpleasant. Most of one of my own big toe toenails recently fell off (long story), and so far I don’t miss it. Wishing you a speedy recovery, and thanks for all you do!
Regarding mountain lions, down here in Southern California, despite occasional incidents, mountain lions are largely reclusive and avoid people. (Knock on wood.) For a long time, the one that currently lives in Los Angeles’s Griffith Park wasn’t even seen by wildlife researchers until they trapped him (to put a radio collar on him). But more recently, he’s been seen a couple of times by hikers. I think that due to the very dry conditions, he’s recently been drawn to human made water sources in the park such as horse troughs – maybe drought contributes to changes in mountain lion behavior elsewhere as well. But I agree, mountain lion attack is extremely unlikely.
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SplitPants
Social climber
LA
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All,
If there is anyone that has plans or is willing to refresh the flyers in town this weekend please send me a PM. We really could use help doing this and one other task if time permits.
If interested please send me a PM. Thanks
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crankster
Trad climber
South Lake Tahoe, CA
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Historically, the mountains around Mammoth get a decent snowfall in early November. It could be sooner, of course, but I'd estimate there's 2 more months until the hiking trails are covered.
A lot of people, me included, are monitoring this thread hoping a clue is unearthed to help locate Matt before winter. A person who gave him a ride coming forward, a recollection of a conversation; tangible information - anything that would focus the search area.
Any and all ideas towards that end are helpful. Speculation about mountain lions is not helpful.
I think Matt went to an area where he could find a classic climb, one in the Secor guidebook. This had been his pattern. Those areas are fairly well-traveled and I'm hoping someone finds a trace soon.
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kenish
Gym climber
Orange County, CA
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Matt's disappearance has many parallels to the search for a missing veteran backcountry ranger in Sequoia about 15 years ago. "The Last Season" is a good book about it; the search for Matt reminded me of the book. Google "Randy Morgenson" for many online articles. A good one is: http://www.backpacker.com/survival_guide_skills_how_to_stay_safe_in_the_wilderness/skills/12226 (Hope it's OK to post a link, if not it's on the Backpacker website).
The search areas were based on their knowledge of the terrain and habits. Seems like that's exactly what people who have searched for Matt are doing, except for not being able to assemble enough experts for a vote as explained on p10 of the article.
The article and book discuss many theories that made the rounds. It came down to Occam's Razor...the simplest explanation with the fewest assumptions turned out to be true. The article is sparse on details at the end and doesn't mention Morgenson wasn't found for 5 years, in spite of the intensive search effort that included several sweeps just a few feet from his final resting place. I'm bringing all this up because it helps to understand the difficulty of searches in the Sierras.
I hope Matt is located very soon.
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SplitPants
Social climber
LA
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Kenish
Thanks for the article. I read that several years ago don't know why I didn't think of posting the link oh about a few hundred links ago so +10 for you Kenish! Gonna read it again. We happen to know the author Eric Blehm from back in the day. Little bit of Trivia for fun, first Eric has published a few books that are really good so look him up on Amazon. Second, back in the 90's Eric was the southern california sales Rep for Burton Snowboards.
Now back to our regularly scheduled program..........
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silentone
Mountain climber
wisconsin
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Hello all great work by all.
I have been following this thread and I have read every post and I have not seen anything to do with what matt ate.
Are there any clues to be gleened from what kind of a food suply he had on hand or might have purchased recently? Rite aid purchase seems important in this respect.(AND OTHER RESPECTS) Was he buying food there regularly? Eating out? Did he have food stashed at his car or a bear box at the campground? Did he snack or was he in the habit of having a large meal?
Anyone?
Thanks
S.O.
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scooter
climber
fist clamp
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I have seen Mtn lions up in that area as well as a lot of bears. I wonder if he had a bear canister? I have seen and treated people who have had there food swiped out from under their heads by bears. Nasty facial lacerations and the bear hardly touched them. One of the guys was cut to the bone on his head and face, if it swiped his neck instead....
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PAUL SOUZA
Trad climber
Central Valley, CA
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Matt wasn't going overnight. No need for a bear can.
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tdg119
Social climber
Northampton, PA
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A hiker in the area sent me this note:
Kelly will add to the map.
Hi - I am not sure if this is very helpful but wanted to report that we were family camping overnight over the labor day weekend hiking from Agnew Meadow to Thousand Islands Lake near the cross of the JMT & the PCT- My husband climbed the eastern side of Banner on Monday am to get a couple of skiing turns in and saw no evidence of Matthew. My husband made his own trail and was looking closely for anything that seemed unusual.
~Ron
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Ron
Good data update
a couple of skiing turns in Evidence of moderate snow conditions that might have appealed to Matt.
Like Tom Cochrane, I live in Mt Lion country. We live on opposite sides of the same stretch of wilderness. I saw one late at night at the top of my driveway almost exactly a year ago about 100 feet away. He looked at me and just kept going….away from me.
Puma Concolor is wary of people. Chance that a healthy adult was attacked by one is almost nil. Black bears in California ditto.
Millions of people live in or travel into Mt Lion and Black Bear country in CA every year without trouble. In 26 years there have been 13 verified attacks on people by Mt Lions in Ca. with 3 fatalities.
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/lion/attacks.html
There are far more likely possibilities.
Dean, take care of that durned toe! Must really hurt.
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James Wilcox
Boulder climber
The Coast
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And the thought that an animal could be responsible, an leave absolutely no trace of an attack, is pretty inconceivable.
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SplitPants
Social climber
LA
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Hi,
I asked a similar question to Jill the other day as far as restaurants they visited while they were in town, any food likes/dislikes. She mentioned he likes ZPizza (it's near Rite-aid) and they went to a lot of different places when there. I plan to stop by ZPizza when I get there.
Jill, do you know what Matt's habits were as far as breakfast? Did he usually eat at camp, eat it on the run en rote to or when hiking (power bars and stuff), did he like a breakfast such as eggs, pancakes, or things like cereal? Helps to know breakfast habit because if he sometimes at it at a restaurant there are a couple places very close to his camp. Any other thoughts would help. Any restaurants besides ZPizza you went to that he liked or you think he might have gone back to?
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tdg119
Social climber
Northampton, PA
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Sharing a msg from Matt's friend Chris rec'd thru Facebook:
"T/R
Working through some technical issues on the Iron Mountain photos..I have to find the Nikon CD to load the pictures to my computer. Once I have them up, I will get them to Kelly...and refine the area searched range. But again, no evidence.
Also on the timeline, you can tag the 7 minute phone call on 7/15 9:35pm/6:35pm to me.
Also I scored this find:
http://www.firstchurchofthemasochist.com/2013/07/iron-mountain-from-devils-postpile-for.html
from a group that was out there on 7/20-7/21. I will follow up with them to see if any of them got a photo of the summit register."
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
I'm James Brown, Bi-atch!
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a map that shows a trail with dates from his last known position to his first known position and the search locations done as well as the possible areas he could have reached might generate some more ideas,
any factual clues could also be written on the map,
as far as a big cat being involved, the vote seems to indicate we can eliminate that as a possible explanation, some areas in California are getting to be heavily populated by lions, Henry Coe Park, Santa Cruz Mountains, I was just wondering if these mountains in the Eastern Sierra had seen the same growth in numbers,
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Dan Watson
climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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We finally got a response from Rite-Aid about getting a copy of the sales receipt for the purchases made by Matthew on July 16. That information is only kept for 14 days and it is no longer available.
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JNCalif
Social climber
Hoboken, NJ by way of Orange County, CA
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Another thought, and my apologies if it's already been suggested (I read through the thread but it's entirely possible I missed this.) So many here, especially SplitPants, have compiled such comprehensive information about everything that is known about Matt's disappearance.
I came across a missing person's report on
https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/show/21261
this website, and I thought it might make sense to update Matthew's profile with all of the data so that all of these details are available to people who might not make their way to SuperTopo.
Just a thought and I continue to hope and pray with you all that Matt will be found soon.
[url="http://https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/show/21261"]http://https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/show/21261[/url]
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