Woman missing for four days

July 6, 1982
High Sierra, lnyo County
1982-026

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By Mark Rhoads

A pager call went out looking for people to participate in a search out of Bishop. A woman had been missing since the previous Saturday and was last seen near the Hutchinson Meadow area on that day.

Craig Beasley, John Muratet and I responded to the call and drove all Tuesday night to Bishop. About 30 minutes after reaching the sheriff's station in Bishop we drove up to the road head above North Lake and were the third team assigned and in the air. Our assignment was to search the trail up French Canyon from Hutchinson Meadow until we met up with the Mammoth Lake team.

Not long after starting, we ran into the Mammoth Lake Team - so much for our assignment. After some confusion and time, we were re-assigned to search up from our current position to a lake whose name escapes my memory now. Even though it was July, after climbing for a while, it became necessary to use snowshoes to avoid breaking through the crust of the four foot deep snow! By early afternoon we reached the lake with no sign of the subject. Despite calling in by radio that we had finished our assignment, we were not re-assigned and towards late afternoon we were flown out to the roadhead. Just a few minutes after getting back, the subject was found hungry and cold, but in good condition by another field team. The Inyo Sheriff treated us to a chicken dinner and we spent Wednesday night driving back home.