Crews search for Texas man Taylor Rodriguez missing on Mt. Whitney

Rescue crews searched Mt. Whitney on Saturday for a Texas man who went missing last week while attempting to summit the notoriously challenging peak in frigid and snowy conditions.

Taylor Rodriguez, a 29-year-old from San Antonio, set out alone Monday, according to the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office, despite trails slick with ice, an intimidating weather forecast and experience that friends said was limited to an indoor climbing gym.

“A lot of us don’t understand what made him get in his car, drive to Whitney and kind of do this on a whim,” said family friend Susana Guerra, a veteran hiker who has climbed the mountain repeatedly. “He’s such a smart kid, really smart, and it’s hard to understand what he was thinking.”

Family and friends of Rodriguez contacted the sheriff Thursday after they had not heard from him. Authorities located the truck he drove from Texas in a parking lot near the trail entrance.

Volunteer teams from the Inyo County Search & Rescue were looking for Rodriguez on the main Mt. Whitney trail and planned then to scour a more difficult route known as the Mountaineer’s Trail. Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Lindsey Stine said crews hoped to employ a helicopter in the search depending on wind conditions.

In the five days since Rodriguez disappeared, temperatures have fallen as low as the high teens at night with wind gusts Friday of more than 50 mph.

“At this time, they are still searching for him as if he is alive,” Stine said, noting that, “There have been people who have gone missing who have managed to stay alive for days at a time.”

Mt. Whitney is the highest point in the U.S. outside of Alaska at 14,405 feet. In the warmer months, hikers have been known to make the 20-mile round-trip journey some years in fleece jackets and hiking boots. It is so popular between May and November that some 100,000 people participate in an annual permit lottery.

In the winter, it can be a vastly different story. Waist-deep snow, ice fields, avalanches and the risk of hypothermia and frostbite make the mountain a far riskier proposition. Those who do climb are normally veterans equipped with crampons, ice axes, helmets, ropes and a thorough knowledge of the route, said Dave Miller, a professional mountain guide who has summited Whitney 80 times.

“Trying to do it one day in the wintertime would be reserved for highly experienced people probably using skis so they could get down quicker,” Miller said.

Rodriguez with his dog Dutch in 2015.

(Melanie Jaramillo)

Rodriguez, who trained in petroleum engineering and construction, had no backcountry experience and began climbing at an indoor gym only in the last few months, according to people who knew him.

“He was really good at hunting. His family lives out on a ranch with cows. So outdoors, yes, but mountaineering… no,” said Melanie Jaramillo, who dated Rodriguez in high school and remained in touch with him.

It is believed he headed out on the trail at 1 a.m. that morning with plans to summit and return the same day. It is not clear whether he took crampons or other equipment to navigate icy trails or how much research he had done about the routes and conditions.

Guerra, who is Jaramillo’s sister, has summited Whitney eight times and said that even with her understanding of the terrain, she had to be rescued last spring. She said it was difficult to imagine Rodriguez in the snow and dark.

“He can’t have made it far,” she said.

Jaramillo said high school friends, who knew him as a star football player and student at Southwest High School, are in a state of shock and sadness.

“This is a man who wasn’t dumb,” she said.

Rodriguez is 5 feet 9 and about 160 pounds. The sheriff’s department is asking hikers who encountered him on the trail between Monday and Thursday or have other information that might help locate him to call (760) 878-0383.