CARL HERBERT LANDERS
ONE MANS QUEST TO CLIMB CA’S TALLEST PEAK ENDS IN MYSTERY
Carl Herbert Landers
STATE: CA
LOCATION: LAKE HELEN IN SISKIYOU CTY
DATE MISSING: 05-22-1999
DOB: 08-26-1929
AGE: 69
CURRENT STATUS: UNSOLVED
A 69-year-old Orinda man on a quest to climb the highest peak in every California county has been missing on Mount Shasta since Saturday and is the subject of an intensive mountainside search.
Carl Landers planned to climb the snow-capped 14,162-foot volcanic peak on Saturday with fellow Orinda residents Barry Gilmore and Milton Gaines.
He disappeared after he complained of feeling poorly and left camp without his partners to get a head start. When Gaines and Gilmore didn’t catch up to Landers, they reported him missing.
The Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Department started searching immediately, enlisting the assistance of a California National Guard air ambulance helicopter and a California Highway Patrol helicopter equipped with an infrared sensing device. A ground search began Sunday morning with U.S. Forest Service rangers and volunteers on skis and on foot.
As of yesterday evening, searchers had found no sign of Landers, who was wearing two to three layers of clothing, including a rust-colored coat, ski pants and hiking boots with crampons. He was carrying a backpack containing some food and water.