GoalHiking wrote: Wed May 06, 2026 4:34 pmThis meditation thing makes me wonder if they engaged in any mind-enhancing substances on the summit.
I did consider that, initially because I would be inclined to believe something like that vs a uti or a brain bleed/infarct, simply because a uti would be much slower to develop and both hikers would have noticed signs of confusion from her (which maybe they did but I hadn't heard that yet.) Most strokes present with some degree of motor and coordination deficit, not always but typically. I just feel in both those scenarios, I would expect to hear something along the lines to where Hiker A and Hiker C (or just Hiker A later on) earlier on in the trip having noticed Monica was "off" somehow at some point leading up to her disappearance. But that would be a very odd thing for her companions to omit from the story.
However, conversely, for what should be obvious reasons, I could definitely see a scenario where the people she was with now feel the urge to not disclose those details if in fact Monica was under the influence of mind altering substances. That is much more believable in terms of considering potential external factors impacting her decisions when trying to make sense how she lost her way. I guess the next step would be to determine if that group was known to partake in those types of extracurricular activities, or if there's any history of that with the group? I mean from what it sounds like, that activity does seem to fit the mold of what you would expect from a group that seems cultish but to just assume that without an established history isn't exactly fair to them.
Thats definitely an interesting angle and could explain some things but it doesn't really explain the main issue which is why couldn't they find her? And again to reiterate, I'm not saying in like a "I refuse to believe that its possible that they couldn't find her for any other reason than foul play" way either, just to be clear. I'm very aware and open like I've been saying to the possibility that its
more likely than a non-hiker like myself would be accustomed to for her to completely disappear on a mountain like Mt Waterman that quickly in the presence of a search and helicopters, without being found. I just mean in the sense there's an offhand smaller chance that there is some non-hiker centric explanation for her having vanished.
Also, and maybe I'm being a little tinfoily here, so feel free to mock me for what I am about to suggest but do you feel like Monica looks different in the picture where she's walking at a distance? Its very pixelated and I'm sure that's why. I mean its clearly her, I'm not suggesting that it isn't or anything like that. The other two pictures of her from that day she looks exactly like the Monica from the Yoga video but that one where she's walking to me she just looks slightly different. Probably nothing but I just wondered if anyone did a double take like I did.
