A hiker lacking on Mount Whitney was discovered useless Thursday, apparently having fallen 1,000 ft.
Tom Gerbier, 38, had set out on a solo day hike to the summit on Tuesday, Oct. 17. He was reported overdue the next day, Inyo County Search & Rescue mentioned.
On Thursday, a staff of floor searchers noticed proof {that a} hiker had fallen within the space generally known as the Notch. A Nationwide Park Service helicopter was despatched there, and the crew found the physique. It was recovered and transferred to the Tulare County sheriff’s workplace, which confirmed the id, mentioned the report from Sequoia and Kings Canyon Nationwide Parks.
Gerbier, a French nationwide, was a pilot for Air France. He had been on the airline’s Paris-to-Los Angeles flight on Monday and had pushed on to the Lone Pine space for an early begin on his hike Tuesday, an airline trade information website mentioned. He was scheduled for the crew of a return flight out of Los Angeles on Wednesday evening; that flight was canceled after his disappearance.
Gerbier reportedly deliberate to achieve Whitney’s 14,505-foot summit by the Mountaineer’s Route, shorter by mileage however steeper and tougher than the path.
The Notch, the place he fell, is round 14,150 ft elevation on the high of a rocky chute. It marks the beginning of the route’s most tough part, rated Class 3, that means it requires use of palms in addition to ft.
Gerbier’s was the second demise of the yr in Sequoia/Kings Canyon: In August, a person drowned within the Kaweah River close to Sequoia Nationwide Park’s Potwisha campground.
