Rangers Fear More Mishaps On Trails

The Fresno Bee - June 22, 1998

A weekend hiker walked up the Half Dome trail on Memorial Day, disappeared into a snowstorm and probably became the first Yosemite National Park fatality of this El Nino-soaked season.

Authorities, who combed the area with dog teams, helicopters and hundreds of searchers, can only hope his body turns up later this summer.

They can also pray it won't happen again, but they have been down this wet trail before - in 1995.

That was the park's wettest year of the decade, and authorities searched unsuccessfully for a New England woman whose body was found many weeks later in a creek. The search cost $236,000 and a lot of heartache.

Five other hikers died in other incidents in that wet year.

Now, after this year's unsuccessful search that might cost $100,000, rangers are encouraging outdoor enthusiasts to postpone some of their back-country trips until July.

"The creeks are extremely dangerous," said Hayes Roberts, who works at the Wilderness Center. "We have 800 miles of trails in this park. Many of them have been under snow. Water is everywhere."

The wet conditions made it difficult to search for the missing Memorial Day hiker, David Paul Morrison, 28.

As days passed during the search, the frustration mounted. People wondered how a hiker with some experience, such as Morrison, could have been lost on such a well-known trail. People wondered if he intended to harm himself or if he was trying to disappear.

Mystery also surrounded the missing hiker in the wet year of 1995. Hiker Jeanne Hesselschwerdt, 37, disappeared within 100 yards of Glacier Point Road. National media descended on Yosemite, wondering if the New England woman had met with foul play.

Many weeks after the searches ended, her body was found in a creek above Bridalveil Fall. The creek, after swelling well beyond its normal size with snow melt, had finally subsided enough for the body to be seen.

Officials believe she had fallen and drowned in high water.

Other wet-year problems in 1995 included a sudden snowstorm that trapped four climbers on El Capitan. The storm pinned the shivering climbers an extra day before the helicopter rescue arrived.

In August, a French tourist took an ill-advised swim in the freezing snow melt above Nevada Fall in August. He washed over the 594-foot fall to his death.

Such accidents are not uncommon at Yosemite where 4 million people visit each year. Park records show that between 1986 and 1995, 126 people died in Yosemite, 49 of them hikers.

Park search and rescue crews deal with more hiking problems, by far, than any other incident. In 1995, for instance, there were 188 incidents reported and 105 of them involved hikers.

It costs between $200,000 to $400,000 annually to pluck these people from danger in Yosemite, said ranger John Dill, a search and rescue ranger. Dill said most rescues involve an injured or lost visitor and are resolved within hours.

"But we do get one or two of these extended searches, lasting many days," he said. "Those are the expensive ones. They're hard to understand sometimes."

The Morrison search fits that profile. Here's what park officials know:

Morrison, a San Francisco chef who reportedly lived in Fresno several years ago, was not ready for what hit him. He left his tent cabin at Curry Village for Half Dome early on Memorial Day without a parka, hiking boots or any other protection from rain or snow.

He had been staying with his girlfriend, officials said. They said he had heard about the Half Dome climb from friends and wanted to try it during the holiday weekend.

Park officials reported Morrison had family in Fresno, but his relatives did not want to talk to the media. Officials said there was no indication of foul play or other influences in Morrison's disappearance.

Wearing tennis shoes, pants, a sweatshirt and a small pack, he walked in rain along the Mist Trail, past Vernal and Nevada falls and through Little Yosemite Valley. The rain turned to snow at higher elevations on the approach to Half Dome.

Searchers think they found Morrison's foot prints at the base of the Half Dome ascent, a sharp granite slope usually climbed with the help of cables. But park managers had not yet raised the cables because of the snow on the trail.

Morrison would have needed special equipment and mountaineering experience to even attempt the climb without the cables.

Searchers aren't sure which direction he went. The footprints appeared to leave the trail.

"He was known to take chances and leave the trail," Yosemite spokeswoman Christine Cowles. "He may have fallen or injured himself and couldn't respond to the helicopters. It's unusual that we could find no trace of him at all."

Park officials say people should pay attention to the Morrison case, which will remain as a missing person file.

Ranger Roberts said people should have tents, sleeping bags, warm clothing, water-proof garments, hats and hiking boots. Cowles added that people should check the weather report before they go hiking.

"We don't want people to think it's unusually dangerous up here," said Cowles. "But people should be aware that this is an unusual year."