Posts: 161
Threads: 19
Joined: Sep 2020
From Nye County Sheriff:
Quote:Sun, 06 Dec 20 20:49:24 -0600
Search and rescue operation underway
Nye County Sheriff's Office Southern Search and Rescue is engaged in an operation to rescue two adults on Shadow Mountain located on the west side of Pahrump. These two adults were hiking and the path collapsed behind them. Search and Rescue has deployed resources to rescue them.
That came from this link, which was in the Sheriff's dept tweet about the matter:
Link
Rather sketchy, but this is the most detailed report I could find so far. The LV Review-Journal has an article, but it's behind a paywall.
Anyone else know more?
Posts: 161
Threads: 19
Joined: Sep 2020
OK, now they Sheriff's Dept is reporting they were rescued uninjured. But still no details on where this happened, or what happened:
Link
Quote:Mon, 07 Dec 20 13:23:43 -0600
Hikers Rescued
The Nye County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue worked throughout the night to rescue the hikers without success. LVMPD assisted with their helicopter this morning. Both hikers were rescued uninjured and declined medical. Thanks to Search and Rescue for their hours of work and to LVMPD for their assistance.
The LV Review-Journal has a longer article, but still nothing to answer my questions. I have no idea what "hiking trail" they were on. AFAIK, there are no trails on Shadow Mountain.
Link
Quote:Authorities in Nye County on Monday rescued two hikers who spent a chilly night stranded in a mountainous area west of Pahrump.
The hikers told authorities they were stranded in the area of Shadow Mountain when a section of a hiking trail collapsed after they had crossed it.
On Monday morning, the hikers were rescued with the assistance of the Metropolitan Police Department search and rescue unit.
“Both hikers were rescued uninjured and declined medical (assistance,)” Capt. David Boruchowitz of the Nye County Sheriff’s Office said in a news alert sent out at 11:20 a.m.
The Sheriff’s Office search and rescue team tried all night Sunday to reach the hikers. Once daylight arrived, assistance from the Metro search and rescue team and a police rescue helicopter made the rescue possible, Boruchowitz said.
Details on how the hikers were pulled off the mountain were not immediately available.
Before the rescue, Boruchowitz said that authorities were “having regular contact” with the hikers through the night.
Boruchowitz declined to release the hikers’ names. He described the location of Shadow Mountain as on the far west side of Pahrump.
“It’s thousands of feet up a mountain,” Borcuhowitz said of the rescue scene.
Temperatures in the area were in the 30s overnight.
Posts: 480
Threads: 70
Joined: Sep 2020
Perhaps the lack of a formal hiking trail is the problem, and they were doing a cross country exploration into terrain that they were not prepared to traverse.
Posts: 161
Threads: 19
Joined: Sep 2020
That's why I still suspect they were somewhere other than Shadow Mountain. I've hiked up and down Shadow Mountain twice, it's very easy terrain. I can't imagine what would "collapse" on any of those ridges or slopes that would strand someone.
Other nearby ranges such as the Nopahs are another story. Much more rocky and steep. And the rock is not all of good quality.
Some summits in those ranges are on my to-do list, so I have more than a passing interest in this! If they were on one of the established routes, a rock slide, etc. could have fundamentally altered the route. Or maybe they were off-route, and that's how they got stranded.
Posts: 9
Threads: 1
Joined: Oct 2020
You've probably already seen this, but it seems they were not on any recognized trail after all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulFx_pxdNd4
Posts: 161
Threads: 19
Joined: Sep 2020
No, I hadn't seen it. But it's further evidence this occurred somewhere other than Shadow Mt itself.
BTW, Shadow and its neighboring peaks are in Inyo County, CA. But evidently there's an agreement for Nye County to help with SAR activities in Inyo County. For example, they helped out in a SAR operation on Eagle Mt. in February this year:
Eagle Mt rescue
Apparently we won't get clarification from media coverage, so I'll just have to ask around the climbing community, and watch for an online report.
