Missing Germans of Death Valley

[RichardK]

Everyone here has probably heard of the Germans that went missing in Death Valley in 1996. Tom Mahood of the Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit developed a theory about the disappearance and subsequently found the remains. He has now published a facinating account of the event which can be found here:

http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/sear ... y-germans/

At the end of the article, he delivers this blistering criticism of the Inyo County Sherriff's Office:

As a followup to preparing this narrative, on April 11, 2012 I sent an email to Carma Roper, the Public Information Officer for the Inyo County Sheriff’s office. She and I had exchanged email correspondence shortly after we first found the Germans. I said that I knew about the helicopter trip in and the recovery of some additional items and remains, but that I never saw any sort of official announcement from their office of either the recovery or any results. I asked her if any further identifications had been made.

She never responded.

That sort of treatment is typical of the level of professionalism I’ve experienced from the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office. And I have taken away a very valuable lesson from it all. If I ever find myself in a dire situation in the backcountry of Inyo County and require rescue, I would crawl on bloody hands and knees over miles of jagged rock until I reached either the Kern or San Bernardino County lines. Then, and only then, would I set off my Personal Locator Beacon or SPOT device. A person needs to do everything possible to maximize survival….

Holy Smokes! Like many other members, I make hiking trips to the Southern Sierra where the Inyo County sherriff would be in charge of any SAR effort. His comment does not give me a warm, fuzzy feeling.

[rios]

Thanks for sharing the link. I read it the other day. Very interesting report.

[DukeJH]

Great post. I killed a couple hours at work reading. I guess that's why we have nights and weekends.

[VermillionPearlGirl]

Yeah, interesting story. I've been to Death Valley a bunch of times and its definitely a place you want to be prepared. It weighs the car down, but usually I keep 5-10 gallons of water in the trunk.