Search For Missing Marine 1LT Kraft – Scaled Back
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Mono County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue team started a search for 1st Lt. Matthew Kraft on March 4. (Marine Corps)
This is just sad.
This young man went on a solo ski-hike in the Sierras ahead of a storm that was in the forecast. His car was found. He did report to the local LEO station before he hit the trail, but he was alone and there has been no contact with him since he started his trek.
There are many signs of avalanche activity in the area that he had planned to ski/hike.
While I know that Mother Nature is not the kindest of souls, I can only hope that he is eventually found, period.
As it is, the search has been reduced, partly due to the snowpack in the Sierras, which is up to more than 50 feet in some areas.
Category: Marines
I have to agree. Sometimes folks have more balls than brains.
I’m not going to make any Marine or crayon jokes.
Sad and I hope his family has some closure.
Had missed this in the news somehow. Maybe all the Trump bad, which dim is running for pres this week or all of the flood coverage I been looking for.
Here’s hoping he is found safe, holed up somewhere. Bad way to have to put cross country nav and survival skills to the test.
Having spent a fair amount of time up there myself, I can say that the Sierras have plenty of ways to kill lone hikers in August. March is much worse, and there’s places in that mountain range that are so rugged a satphone might not get reception.
I pray that he’s holed up in whatever shelter he was able to set up and is riding it out until conditions improve.
Sad indeed.
Having did winter training in Bridgeport surrounded by Marines, with full support, communications. good access and emergency transportation available I can truthfully say there is no fucking way I’d venture out there on my own.
Mother nature is a stone cold bitch, and the “buddy system” is there for a reason. All it takes is a broken ankle a fall in a stream, a long header off a rock or having a key piece of gear lost or broken and you are fucked.
I truly hope the guy is some type of Jerimiah Johnson and is holed up somewhere eating rabbits and staying warm….
I just had a chill run through me thinking about Bridgeport. Never been that cold in my life.
Ok, just caught me the PTSDs thinking about Bridgeport! No way in hell would I go through there by myself. Nope!
Yep. Going hiking alone is about as smart as going scuba diving alone. Too many potential dangers. Have an airline become knotted or tangled cutting off airflow from the tank because of a strong current, getting a violent cramp attack, air embolism, decompression sickness, possible attack from the many different sea creatures. Definitely not activities you should do alone.
I grew up in the Teton range. You just do not do what this young man did. As others have stated, Mother Nature is an evil bitch and she will kill you any way she can. I don’t know if this Marine overestimated his abilities or just didn’t know better, the result is the same. The science of avalanche prediction is dicey on a good day, and with this year’s snowpack in the Sierras it’s pretty much a crapshoot. My heart goes out to his family.
My prayers are with him and his family during this very difficult time. I pray they find him alive, or at least find him period! May God bless him and his family.
Going solo walk-about anywhere in the wilderness is a formula for disaster. All one has to have happen is fall and break a leg or a hip, and one is food for the carrion eaters. Kit Carson got away with solo treks in the wilderness. But he was a mountain man with years of experience in the vastness of the West. This LT, not so much. I imagine his body or what is left of it will be found by hikers sometime this summer.
I sure would not do it with out an EPIRB….