The Wetherton/Beverly debate

Dave

Broadcaster, formerly "ashergrey"
.
Joined
May 5, 2012
Messages
1,725
As a reporter in Utah I've covered countless stories about backcountry searches, some ending with rescues and others not. The one that has always stayed with me is the story of Carole Wetherton and Kim Beverly. The were on a day hike in the Uintas when weather moved in... dumping snow. Summit County SAR found their rented vehicle at the trailhead but their bodies were not discovered until the following spring when a SAR team doing training with a heli spotted glimmering from a space blanket.

The SAR groups never disclosed their final resting place and it bothers me that we still don't have good answers to why their situation ended as it did. I've been following this page on summitpost.com for a few years now and even went scouting around Mount Watson last summer (I'll write that up in a trip report eventually). I'm curious to see if any backcountryposters have theories.
 
Here's a Google map showing the location of the last two photographs, as well as the spot I checked last year. My hiking path is also overlaid. I'd like to visit the area again but from the Long Lake side. Since we know the women headed south from Hidden Lake (based on the ordering of their films) I believe their location could be further south than where I checked. It would be pretty easy to hike in to the Long Lake area, camp a night and spend the next day scouring the upper section of the Middle Fork of the Weber.
 
I've read about this and frequently thought about it over the years when I hike in the Uintas. I thought it was pretty straight forward what had gone wrong? From what I understood, they went to Long Lake, storm moved in, and instead of hiking back towards Crystal Lake they went the wrong way into the Middle Fork Weber drainage. No? Sad story for sure. But what makes me think even harder is what happened to Garret Bardsley in Cuberant Basin. Still no sign...
 
But what makes me think even harder is what happened to Garret Bardsley in Cuberant Basin. Still no sign...

I agree the Bardsley situation is a curious one. Thing is, I can't rule out abduction with that case. I'm not sure if that's better or worse.
 
Agreed. And I seriously can't believe I'm saying this... but Cuberant is the #1 reported place for sasquatch sightings in Utah. I've even had a seriously strange encounter up there. Not saying I believe in bigfoot mind you, just saying it's a little strange, especially when you're looking at potential places to solo backpack...
 
Haha I hadn't heard of bigfoot sightings in Cuberant.

I've not had too many odd encounters in the backcountry, beyond feeling like I was being stalked by an animal once or twice.
 
But what makes me think even harder is what happened to Garret Bardsley in Cuberant Basin. Still no sign...

I think I may day hike into the Cuberant Basin on Saturday, since I've never been there before. I'm trying to remember which of the basin lakes they were at when Garrett disappeared. The only online stories I can find reference an "unnamed" lake or Middle Lake... but since they're not marked on USGS topos with the exception of the largest one (Cuberant Lake) it's hard to know where he was last seen.
 
Way to steal your photo! :rolleyes:

For some reason I always thought he had gone missing from the big one, Cuberant 4. But I don't recall what made me think that. Here's a map of the lakes with their numbers.

[parsehtml]
<iframe width="700" height="700" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&amp;msid=214533597045798101523.00048f114ca0bb542b781&amp;hl=en&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;t=p&amp;ll=40.726641,-110.911789&amp;spn=0.045532,0.060081&amp;z=14&amp;output=embed"></iframe><br /><small>View <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&amp;msid=214533597045798101523.00048f114ca0bb542b781&amp;hl=en&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;t=p&amp;ll=40.726641,-110.911789&amp;spn=0.045532,0.060081&amp;z=14&amp;source=embed" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">Cuberant Basin</a> in a larger map</small>
[/parsehtml]
 
I agree the Bardsley situation is a curious one. Thing is, I can't rule out abduction with that case. I'm not sure if that's better or worse.

my take. no so much abducted, but rather ended up as prey for a mountain lion... unfortunately.

it's well known that the felines will travel long distances whilst tracking/stalking prey, and return once obtained. this would result in the victim being removed up to at least a coupla drainages prior to being consumed and/or stashed deep in any boulder field that is prevailent in the uintahs. removed far enough where SAR would not expect and/or have the resources to search.

my greatest fear when in the wilderness with my kids is not so much running into an agitated grizzly, but rather being stalked/victimized by a mountain lion.
 
I don't think Bardsley was abducted, I just can't rule it out. Cougar attacks in Utah are extremely rare and typically only take place when the cat is young/inexperienced or starving. Garrett was small enough he could have been prey, but large enough it would have been difficult for a cougar to drag him far. I also think there would have been blood evidence at the scene of the attack. In any case, none of us will really know until his remains are found, if at all.
 
my greatest fear when in the wilderness with my kids is not so much running into an agitated grizzly, but rather being stalked/victimized by a mountain lion.

I had a large tom follow me for about 45 minutes, two years ago. We maintained eye contact almost the entire time. Very cool experience. One of, if not the neatest predator encounter I've ever had.

- DAA
 
I was thinking about the Bardsley portion of this thread over the weekend after pixie1339 , rockiemtn42 and I had a lost scout encounter. A grandfather and his grandson were just headed up the trail from Notch Lake ahead of the troop they were with. The grandson forgot his hat and the grandfather told him to drop his pack and go get it. This happened while we were passing them. About an hour or so later we were on our way back when a group asked if we'd seen a lost scout. They gave us some details and said he became missing while looking for his hat. We looked at each other and was like what the hell. It felt very weird at that moment because we were the last people to see this kid other than his grandfather before he got lost. The good news is they found him about 2 1/2 hours after he was lost as we were reaching the trailhead. I can't speak for the others, but it kind of bugged me a bit that the grandfather didn't go with the kid because the kid had a hurt foot from what the other scouts told us. Now I know we have some scout leaders here that go with their scouts. isn't there supposed to be a buddy system to prevent this kind of stuff? It's pretty scary to think about if my son was hiking with the scouts and got lost. I got to say that if that kid was still missing I'd be pretty psyched out right now. Puts things into perspective about how little it takes to get lost. Anyone have a take on situations like this?
 
That's freaky. I'd never let a kid wander alone in the Uintas, period.
 
I got lost for several hours once as a small child. Probably the most vivid memory I have from being a little kid. Scary, scary stuff. That doesn't really add much but hearing about it happening to others always reminds me.
 
You asked about "our theories". Here goes: I wonder if it isn't too much of a stretch to think they may have been lost and finally had to find shelter in that rock with a lean-to, then eventually hypothermia set in?

Why I don't think it's a stretch to say that: On Summit County's Search and Rescue page, it says they're one of the busiest search and rescue places in the state. It seems like usually when you hear about SAR finding someone in the Uintas who's still alive, the person tells the news they got turned around. So, I wonder if it's not too much of a stretch to entertain that as a possibility. You also keep on hearing about studies on how people hike in circles when they don't recognize the landmarks, often veering to the right or left. When you're behind a computer screen looking at a topo map, it's always easy to say, "How could they get lost." However, when you're out in the real world on a random hike and the rain makes you want to run back to your vehicle, the route can sometimes seem less obvious.

I hiked to the western end of Hidden Lake just this last Monday the 17th, going from Wall Lake, turning left right before the Notch, and passing Clyde Lake. (My picture of Hidden Lake)

815122.JPG


Although I'm open-minded to the possibility of injury also, my thoughts are they went to Wall Lake, Hope Lake, then around Clyde Lake. Once there, they decided to look around by heading west a little bit. Then when they saw a nasty storm in the distance moving in, decided to "hurry" back to their vehicle, and so didn't pay as much attention to landmarks. When I went there, I could see how someone may mix the shape of Long Mountain up with the Bald Mountain/Reid's Peak/ combo, so perhaps they went that way. Yes, Mount Watson and western Notch Mountain do not look the same, and yes the angle of Long versus Bald/Reid's Mountain are different, but if they weren't as familiar with the area and were in a hurry, they may not have paid as much attention. They may have then followed the stream from Hidden Lake downhill to the Weber River Middle Fork, when in their mind they thought instead it was one of those streams on their map heading back in the direction of Trail/Crystal Lake area.

I also believe they had a forest service map, which do not show where the trees are, like the USGS maps do. So, the fact that Notch Mountain has some trees on it from that angle while Mount Watson is bare, probably wasn't noticed by them.

That's one idea I had when hiking in that area.
 
Obviously, one of the best ways to test some of the ideas out there is to find the final resting place where they were found.

On Summitpost, there was a location given for that meadow picture they took, near the stream running from Hidden Lake down to the Weber River Middle Fork. Looking at an older topo map of the area which shows that stream, after going south after Hidden Lake it then takes a curve north and then west.

(Older topo map of Hidden Stream)
http://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=40.70791,-110.97302&z=14&b=1930&n=0.25&o=r

If their final resting location was along that stream (or once you hit the Middle Fork, they were found further north), then I think it would make sense perhaps they mixed the directions up and thought they were following a stream to the Crystal/Trial Lake area. However, if at that stream bend in that "meadow" they headed south, then it would make more sense maybe they knew where they were going all along and were trying to circle Mount Watson or some other similar "pre-planned" hiking route.
 
Back
Top