Missing Hiker Found in Yosemite National Park

Missing Hiker Found in Yosemite National Park - news release
Hiker Found Near Edith Lake, Five Miles East of Kibbie Lake
Scott Gediman 209-372-0248
Kari Cobb 209-372-0529

John Paul Chaufan Field, the missing hiker in Yosemite National Park, has been found safe and in good condition. He was spotted by the park’s contract helicopter at approximately 3:15 p.m. this afternoon near Edith Lake, approximately five miles east of Kibbie Lake, the point where he was last seen.

Once Chaufan Field was spotted by the helicopter, Yosemite National Park Rangers contacted him and found him to be unharmed and in good health. He is currently being transported from the backcountry to the Hetch Hetchy Ranger Station.

Yosemite National Park would like to thank all of the cooperating agencies for their excellent work and teamwork in the positive resolution to this search and rescue operation.

Yosemite National Park (CA)
Missing Hiker Found By Searchers

The three-day search for a 22-year-old college student lost in the park came to a successful conclusion yesterday afternoon when he was found in good condition about five miles from the point where he'd last been seen. John Paul Chaufan Field, 22, a college student at the University of California at Santa Cruz, was last seen near Kibbie Lake in the Hetch Hetchy area of the park this past Saturday. Field was on a backpacking trip with a group of fellow students from UCSC. The students began their hike at Cherry Lake on Friday and set up camp near Kibbie Lake that evening. Late on Saturday morning, group members noticed that Chaufan Field was not present during a headcount. When the group reassembled approximately an hour later after a short day hike, he was still unaccounted for. Approximately 50 people began searching for him, including search and rescue teams from Yosemite National Park Search and Rescue, Contra Costa County, Marin County, Monterey County, and the Bay Area Mountain Rescue Unit. The park's helicopter and a California Highway Patrol helicopter assisted ground teams in the search, as did search dog teams. He was spotted from the park's contract helicopter yesterday afternoon near Edith Lake, approximately five miles east of Kibbie Lake, the point where he was last seen. Rangers soon contacted him and found him to be unharmed and in good health.

Who pays for that? Why on Earth did he wander away from his group?

To take a potty break?

Expensive, but this is where the Garmin Rhinos would be useful. Let's hope for a safe 2012 for all park visitors.

I guess all that matters is we have a happy ending. Lets not have a year like last year.

That's quite a ways to wander, all the way from Kibbie to Edith...

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oakroscoe
That's quite a ways to wander, all the way from Kibbie to Edith...

You can't read it as explicitly as you would think. At least that is my take on these
things. They are quite liberal in how they describe things. Edith Lake IS approx.
5 miles east of Kibbie. He was found NEAR Edith. How NEAR? Nance is NEAR.
Highly doubtful he went down TO Edith. Why? Well... take a look at the
Topo and also the Creek Situation.
Was probably wandering around Nance area totally discombobulated....
without map and compass or GPS. Probably first time in area.
5 miles isn't much in amount of time he was gone missing.

Glad he was found alive and well.

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It also sounds like the group he was with had a good protocol for detecting whether anyone had gone missing in time for something to be done about it.

You're right, I was reading it too literally. I was thinking how the eff did he get to Edith? But remembering how the Park Service describes things, I'm sure he was "near" it. These are the same people who after those two guys got swept off the bridge at hetchy said "well they could have gone around it on a slight detour." Calling going back to Vernon a "slight detour" is disingenuous to say the least.

Of course there's no way they started at Cherry Lake either...

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You never know. I have talked to a group that started at Cherry and took the trail all the way to Shingle Springs. They wanted "the exercise". They looked blankly when it was suggested that they park at Shingle and have some exercise going to Boundary.