SummitPost.org

Sad news indeed.

Some people use rocks for training, because you can dump them on the summit. That way you can go light on the descent, lowering the strain on your knees.

I would guess that if she had rocks in her pack, then she was still going up when the accident happened.

Rob wrote:Sad news indeed.

Some people use rocks for training, because you can dump them on the summit. That way you can go light on the descent, lowering the strain on your knees.

I would guess that if she had rocks in her pack, then she was still going up when the accident happened.

I use water and typically pick up some rocks along the way but don't leave them on the summit - why make the peak taller?
Very sad that she was unable to summon someone for help. That's always a risk you have to be willing to take when going solo even in our friendly local mountains.

RIP Michelle Yu

Rob wrote:Sad news indeed.

Some people use rocks for training, because you can dump them on the summit. That way you can go light on the descent, lowering the strain on your knees.

I would guess that if she had rocks in her pack, then she was still going up when the accident happened.

I think based on where they found her in the Fish Fork drainage, she may have fallen right down the north side of the summit area.

SoCalHiker wrote:

Rob wrote:Sad news indeed.

Some people use rocks for training, because you can dump them on the summit. That way you can go light on the descent, lowering the strain on your knees.

I would guess that if she had rocks in her pack, then she was still going up when the accident happened.

I think based on where they found her in the Fish Fork drainage, she may have fallen right down the north side of the summit area.

That is what alot of people do for training. I use water but rocks are more dense. Dump them on top for the knees on the way down. We did a Search and rescue in the same area for an 18 year old MIT student about five years ago in November and we never found him after a couple of years of searching. Do not no if he was found in the recent years.

My heart goes out to Michelle's family and friends in this very difficult time.

Gary Schenk wrote:

greg patterson wrote:We did a Search and rescue in the same area for an 18 year old MIT student about five years ago in November and we never found him after a couple of years of searching. Do not no if he was found in the recent years.

That Russian kid? From where they found his pack, he's probably down in the Fish Fork, too. That's as remote as it gets in the San Gabriels.

It was the Russian kid Eugene Lushevskiy. He was missing since Oct 31,2004. Lola karabaeva was his mom. Bill Davison put the local search togeather. The pack was found a couple hundred feet down elevation a hundred yards or so east of the summit where there are a few trees. We did a complete circle hundreds of feet down from the summit looking from some foot prints that could have been Eugene's in the snow. If I can remember right there was no prints on that west side towards Fish Fork and his pack was on the other side of the summit. I went down the North side and did a sweep. Did not see any prints but a lot of snow and ice. He came up the Baldy bowl trail and he was shooting a sunrise on the summit with his video camera that was found in his pack. We think that he had gone down the east side and we spent time going down the Lytle creek area and going up the Baldy bowl area.

It was sad we could not find anything for his friends and family. Eugene was bright kid and accepted to Masachusetts institute of technoloy on almost a full scholarship.
Here is the link of Eugene's footage and a news clip with his father.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5ZdjgUSDeo

man too bad

slip on any icy chute can lead to your peril. and down into Fish fork? not a good combo.

pretty sure TDR showed me a photo of what seemed to be a human femur he found down there. crazy place

1000Pks wrote:btw, is there not a good leave no trace ethic going on down there? I'd just think there is a much better way of training besides dumping rocks everywhere.

rip, again, but I think we are not hearing the entire story, yet.

If you pick up the right rocks, there is a pretty damn good chance they came from up near the top of the mountain in the first place. After a few winters they will be on their way down once again, not a huge deal imo.

Gary Schenk wrote:

greg patterson wrote:We did a Search and rescue in the same area for an 18 year old MIT student about five years ago in November and we never found him after a couple of years of searching. Do not no if he was found in the recent years.

That Russian kid? From where they found his pack, he's probably down in the Fish Fork, too. That's as remote as it gets in the San Gabriels.

I thought on one of those searches we searched Fish Fork and the slope up to the Backbone.

in the group i was with, we did a sweep around the top a couple of hundred yards down from the summit all the way looking for foot prints. His pack was on the east side just below the summit. We came up from the ski hut spread out. We also did one from Lytle Creek with less people. A jeep outfit took us up as far as they could..

We went up a week after the the first SAR went up there. They had bad weather for the copters. A couple of them on the ground got hurt from what I remember. Somebody I thought had broken their leg. I would like to see a full grid of who went where. They did a search on the north side a few months ago going down to Lytle creek saying it had not been done we some of the guys in our group had done it as far as I know.

The Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit has a report of their efforts
http://rmru.org/missions/2010/2010-038.html

This is a shot heading up Lytle Creek canyon, looking for Eugene.

ridgeline wrote:

This is a shot heading up Lytle Creek canyon, looking for Eugene.

We went up the same way past that little falls. Looks like it anyway. The snow was deep and we were post holing a good part of the way. It seened like the snow just dumped down into the bottom of the gorge from the steep slopes. The gorge got more narrow with steep walls as we went up. The granite just got steeper with snow and ice. All we had were snow shoes. We concluded snow shoes are just not that good for climbing granite. Would have been so easy in the summer. Some guys with recon jeeps took us up as far as the could and dumped us off. Bill Davidson put this together.

Cy Kaicener wrote:The Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit has a report of their efforts
http://rmru.org/missions/2010/2010-038.html

Is there a more informative report available, perhaps from the group that found her?

My condolences to friends and family.