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A climber suffered an “unsurvivable” fall this week after summiting the 13,000-foot peak of a remote California mountain.
Rescuers found Brian Seibert, 53, dead on Mount Morgan North in Mono County Tuesday after he apparently fell off a cliff as he descended from the dangerous mountain.
Officials declared Seibert missing on Sunday after he didn’t return home and friends reported his disappearance. The Mono County Sheriff’s Office activated the county search and rescue team to help find him Monday.
Setting out with scent-sniffing dogs and helicopters, the team determined he climbed the north ridge of the mountain and made it to the top, signing his name in the summit registry. They used cellphone data to track his descent, but officials wrapped Monday’s search with Seibert still missing.
Resuming the search Tuesday, rescuers used a Cal Guard CH-47 Chinook to deploy rescuers at 12,500 feet to restart the search. The helicopter then “identified an anomaly” sitting near the bottom of Grand Central Couloir, a gully off the summit.
Rescuers made their way to him and made a tragic discovery.
Seibert had “sustained an unsurvivable fall from a cliff band at the base of the couloir,” officials said.
His body was recovered early Wednesday morning after teams determined there would not be enough time left in the day to make a safe extraction.
The Mono County Sheriff’s Office expressed its condolences to Seibert’s family and thanked a number of local and state partners for their assistance.
Friends of Seibert mourned the “peak bagger.”
“We sure had some good times with that big mammoth family…the world is gonna miss you…rest easy , brian,” Darin Mitchell wrote on Facebook.
“Thank you for all your efforts to get our friend back to his loved ones!” another friend added.
The hike to Mount Morgan’s summit is considered very challenging. Climbers must hike 10.4 miles and gain 4,061 feet of elevation to fully summit the mountain and return.
Several Sierra Nevada hikers have faced tragic consequences in recent years.
HGTV guest Kalem Peter Kazarian, 52, died this week after trying to hike Mount Whitney.
