Hiking enthusiast Brian Seibert summited the more than 13,000-foot face of Mount Morgan’s north ridge Sunday, offering him a sweeping panorama view of the jagged peaks and crystalline lakes of the Eastern Sierra.
Three days later, his body was recovered near the bottom of Grand Central Couloir after what authorities determined was “an unsurvivable fall” from a steep cliff, according to the Mono County Sheriff Search and Rescue Team.
The mission to locate Seibert took more than 300 cumulative hours from 20 members of the volunteer rescue team, as well as the support of several outside state and local agencies.
Mount Morgan, located west of Bishop in the Sierra National Forest, sits in technically challenging alpine terrain characterized by boulder fields, steep gullies, unstable talus slopes and hidden drop-offs where a person can easily be concealed from ground and aerial views.
The search began Monday morning when the rescue team was notified by the Mono County Sheriff’s Office that Seibert had not been heard from since he sent a 7 p.m message Sunday night indicating he was on his way back from the peak.
The sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team, or MONOSAR, is a nonprofit organization made up of unpaid community members who volunteer their time and often their own equipment to perform rescues. In a Facebook post detailing this latest mission, the team described Seibert as a “peak bagger,” the type of mountaineer who loves summiting as many peaks as possible, although it is unclear what others he had reached in the past.
“He was truly one of the best and we are all going to miss him,” wrote friend Darin Mitchell in the comments. “Looks like he had an amazing last view.”
The rescue team set up a mission base near Crowley Lake, at the base of the Sierra, and used topographic matching from Seibert’s photos and cell phone forensics to establish a search pattern.
The California Highway Patrol dispatched a helicopter to begin scouring Mount Morgan’s north ridge by air as search-and-rescue team members used high-power optics to scan the east gullies of the mountain for signs of Seibert, according to the search team. Another group of rescue volunteers was inserted west of the summit at 11,200 feet of elevation, and a third team was sent to Seibert’s car with a trained search dog to establish a scent trail.
The team on top of the mountain found Seibert’s name written in the trail register, proving he had reached the peak.
Seibert’s cellphone data indicated he had likely descended using the same ascent route, but exactly what happened after remained a mystery and the first day of search concluded at dark.
The mission resumed 7 a.m. Tuesday, when seven field teams were deployed to search an area “encompassing almost every aspect of Mt. Morgan, top to bottom,” the search team wrote in an online post.
Hope was briefly sparked after a night-flying plane reported a person stoking a large campfire at Davis Lake below Mount Morgan. But when a team was sent to the area they discovered the fire had been from a party of three backpackers, according to the search team.
Additional search crews and aerial assets were assigned to the mission, and just after 2 p.m. Tuesday a California National Guard plane spotted an “anomaly” near the bottom of an east-facing gully off the summit. A rescue helicopter landed nearby and located Seibert’s body, the search team wrote.
Field team members descended to the helicopter through an extremely dense aspen forest, but there was not enough time to safely complete the recovery that evening due to the “extremely challenging nature” of the terrain between the body and nearest landing zone, according to the search team’s post.
His body was recovered early Wednesday morning using a helicopter from Yosemite National Park and crew from Friends of Yosemite Search and Rescue.
“The team sends its heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, and Eastside community for the loss of Brian Seibert,” wrote the Mono County search team.
More than 160 comments were left on the post, describing the mission and expressing condolences for Seibert and gratitude for the effort to find him.
“The scope and detail of these operations amazes me,” wrote commenter Clark Ackerman. “Except for the air assets, the fact that everyone else is a volunteer is awesome. It truly exemplifies the adage ‘Do unto others as you would want others to do unto you.’”
Seibert’s ex-wife also commented on the post, saying she remained good friends with him and that the death was heartbreaking for his family.
“We were always hoping he would be found, maybe injured, but alive,” she wrote. “Even though that didn’t happen it was really comforting to know all the hard work you did for those days to find him. We are very grateful to you.”
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