Presumed Deceased CA - Quang Trong Than, missing on Split Mountain, Kings Canyon NP; Aug 2022

[One Fat Marmot]

My interest in this case was piqued from the Locations Unknown Podcast, Episode 70.

MSM backstory:

Search for missing Newport Beach man scaled back in Kings Canyon National Park

Searchers have scoured the area where Than was last seen for the past 10 days, and authorities decided Thursday to scale back the search to limited continuous mode.

www.cbsnews.com

Sketch: QT, a very experienced hiker, got separated from his two companions on a difficult and strenuous day hike to Split Mountain in KCNP. After extensive searching, SAR was unable to find him.

 

[One Fat Marmot]

General map:



AllTrails Link

 

[One Fat Marmot]

The most helpful source info for me on this case is the photos..... here's one from AllTrails of Split Mountain and a broad swathe of Kings Canyon, but go to the original, since resolution is way better, credit to Marco Sulin.

 

[One Fat Marmot]

The AllTrails comments are worth a look, but my fave was this:

 

[Grok]

OMG I never imagined that’s what King’s Canyon NP looks like. Haha! Not for me….

IMO the LU fellas have the correct theory on this one: QT fell down a chute and got buried in a pile of rubble.

There’s a Reddit-rumor about a bottomless hole near the summit QT could have fallen into, but I’m so not buying it, I won’t bother to post it. Gotta have at least some relationship to reality, and I can’t picture that one.

 

[Nitty Gritty]

Haha! Big pile o' grit! I got looking at the AllTrails comments. There really aren't very many. But problems are: slippery scree, delays because it's easy to lose the trail, having to jump around on talus, scree that's difficult to climb, etc. Pretty much what's obvious from the photo ^^^^. Scree is, like, every problem. Plus, getting baked in treeless sunshine.

Oh, one thing did interest me. Several commenters said a helmet was important because there's falling rock. We know that QT cached his helmet at Red Lake.

 

[Calico Jeans]

If we need analysis, this one's pretty thorough; Reddit under r/socalhiking.

 

[Naughty Pine]

SAR said they glassed the whole area, but I really don't think you could see up and down all those canyons. And they had to have done it from an angle, since there's no way they'd be going onto those scree fields: they look way too unstable.

So, I think a fall, and other QT got hung up inside of one of those ravines, or he got buried in a pile of rubble, either because he got hit by a rock, fell, or whatever....