Remains found on an Eastern Sierra mountain were identified Thursday as a Huntington Beach man who vanished over the weekend after going for a hike in the Inyo National Forest outside Bishop, officials said.
The body of 40-year-old Alan Stringer was located around 2:30 p.m. on a glacier beneath Mount Darwin, according to the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office.
Rescue teams had been searching on foot and from the air after Stringer was reported missing Monday evening.
Stringer said he was going for a hike on Sunday, Nov. 3, but did not return, deputies said.
Stringer did not disclose his specific hiking plans or potential routes, but he had recently purchased an ice ax and crampons, and had taken mountaineering training courses, officials said. He was only equipped for a day hike when he left, and though he had an InReach satellite communication device, it was not activated.
Authorities described Stringer as an experienced hiker.
Searchers looked for Stringer’s car at trailheads around the Bishop area. On Tuesday morning, they found the vehicle at North Lake, which is about 15 miles southwest of town in the Bishop Creek Canyon area. Trails from North Lake start at about 9,500 feet in elevation, and temperatures have dropped well below freezing overnight there in recent days.
Ground teams also combed Piute Pass, Lamarck Col and 13,210-foot Mount Emerson, which can all be reached out of North Lake, authorities said. Thursday’s search was planned to include Wonder Lake Basin and the 13,417-foot summit of Mount Lamarck.
An aerial search was done Wednesday night using night-vision capabilities.
A forensic analysis of Stringer’s cellphone activity revealed only that he had made a call early Sunday from downtown Bishop, before his hike.
It is unclear what Stringer was wearing at the time he went hiking, but officials said he could have been wearing a bright green “puffer” style jacket or a dark green light-weight jacket. His ice ax is lime green.
KTLA’s Melissa Pamer and Erika Martin contributed to this story.
