Found Deceased NH - Hiker Emily Sotelo, from MA, dropped off in Franconia, Lafayette trailhead, Hiking Mounts Lafayette, Haystack & Flume, 20 Nov 2022

[ForesterJake]

This photo isn't mine but was taken very recently of the area to give folks an idea of what things currently look like regarding conditions & topography. Emily's route up Lafayette via the Greenleaf Trail starts bottom center and ascends the cliffy shoulder on the left; looking closely you can make out the speck of Greenleaf hut mid way up. The majority of the Franconia Ridge trail is above treeline and fully exposed. The photo shows the summits of Lafayette (left) to Mt Lincoln & Little Haystack(right). This is only half of the area she was planning to traverse.. As you can imagine, getting lost or intentionally bushwhacking back down to the base of Franconia Notch requires entering the extreme elements of Walker Ravine or other less than ideal routes.. without proper footwear or gear. Kudos to the hardworking SAR and still hoping for a positive outcome!

 

[Snoopster]

This photo isn't mine but was taken very recently of the area to give folks an idea of what things currently look like regarding conditions & topography. Emily's route up Lafayette via the Greenleaf Trail starts bottom center and ascends the cliffy shoulder on the left; looking closely you can make out the speck of Greenleaf hut mid way up. The majority of the Franconia Ridge trail is above treeline and fully exposed. The photo shows the summits of Lafayette (left) to Mt Lincoln & Little Haystack(right). This is only half of the area she was planning to traverse.. As you can imagine, getting lost or intentionally bushwhacking back down to the base of Franconia Notch requires entering the extreme elements of Walker Ravine or other less than ideal routes.. without proper footwear or gear. Kudos to the hardworking SAR and still hoping for a positive outcome!View attachment 382014

Wow! Thank you for that amazing view and perspective. That looks so daunting to me. (But then I live in flatlands and the largest climbs I make on hikes are up the side of a creek valley.)

 

[ForesterJake]

For those of us who don't know these trails, where is 'Osseo'?
What does '@6 miles to the Kanc' mean?

How much traffic would you expect on that trail at this time of year and in theses conditions? Would other people have been like to have seen Emily?

I appreciate your insight.
@White_Mountains I appreciate yours as well.

There are 2 trails to the Summit of Flume- either the dangerously steep Flume Slide Trail to the west or the very long Osseo Trail to the east.. it is over 6 miles to the nearest trail head (Lincoln Woods) off of the Kancamagus Highway (the "Kanc")... and absolutely zero cell signal to boot

 

[acutename]

This photo isn't mine but was taken very recently of the area to give folks an idea of what things currently look like regarding conditions & topography. Emily's route up Lafayette via the Greenleaf Trail starts bottom center and ascends the cliffy shoulder on the left; looking closely you can make out the speck of Greenleaf hut mid way up. The majority of the Franconia Ridge trail is above treeline and fully exposed. The photo shows the summits of Lafayette (left) to Mt Lincoln & Little Haystack(right). This is only half of the area she was planning to traverse.. As you can imagine, getting lost or intentionally bushwhacking back down to the base of Franconia Notch requires entering the extreme elements of Walker Ravine or other less than ideal routes.. without proper footwear or gear. Kudos to the hardworking SAR and still hoping for a positive outcome!View attachment 382014

total rime ice....Lafeyette is 5000ish feet- people out west with "14ers" may think 5000 is not much, but the mountain bases in the Whites start at about see level- not at 10,000 ft so they are big and they are the "first" prominences east of the Atlantic Ocean so they get any weather the ocean dishes out.

 

[Snoopster]

There are 2 trails to the Summit of Flume- either the dangerously steep Flume Slide Trail to the west or the very long Osseo Trail to the east.. it is over 6 miles to the nearest trail head (Lincoln Woods) off of the Kancamagus Highway (the "Kanc")... and absolutely zero cell signal to boot

So, if I understand you correctly, if Emily found herself facing going down Flume Slide Trail, and realized that it was too dangerous in the conditions, then she would have had a very long hike to go to the east. And then what? Her mother wouldn't have been waiting for her there.
I don't think she even made it that far to face that decision. I think conditions along the ridge were likely brutal and she sought shelter, going down a wash or going down the trail from Little Haystack and going slightly off-trail there for shelter. Of course she might have faced zero visibility and wandered off trail, which presents a whole lot of other concerns.

 

[Herat]

We need to start hearing that she had a hat and gloves.

As I read through the various posts by hikers on that trail, I noticed that some said that it was better to do the loop in a counter-clockwise direction. Their reasoning was that going 'down' the Flume Slide Trail was dangerous. They thought it was better to climb up it.
It seems that Emily was doing the route clockwise. So she would have to go down the Flume Trail. Of course if she had actually made it that far and she did slip, the searchers would presumably find her not far from the trail.

I'm guessing that she didn't make it that far.

In the YouTube linked below you can see the slope of the Flume Slide trail.

Well, that's a horrible steep mess to climb on a warm sunny summer day.

It would be an icy ski run in winter.

 

[Snoopster]

This photo isn't mine but was taken very recently of the area to give folks an idea of what things currently look like regarding conditions & topography. Emily's route up Lafayette via the Greenleaf Trail starts bottom center and ascends the cliffy shoulder on the left; looking closely you can make out the speck of Greenleaf hut mid way up. The majority of the Franconia Ridge trail is above treeline and fully exposed. The photo shows the summits of Lafayette (left) to Mt Lincoln & Little Haystack(right). This is only half of the area she was planning to traverse.. As you can imagine, getting lost or intentionally bushwhacking back down to the base of Franconia Notch requires entering the extreme elements of Walker Ravine or other less than ideal routes.. without proper footwear or gear. Kudos to the hardworking SAR and still hoping for a positive outcome!View attachment 382014

On the first page of this thread, I didn't believe that ES was actually going hiking. Once I heard that she was trying to bag peaks before her 20th birthday, then I believed she was up there.

I can't stop looking at this photo. I can't imagine this young 19 year old out there all alone. I won't sleep well tonight.

And I'm thinking of her loved ones and the search teams.
Stay safe and strong everyone.

 

[Warwick1991]

I hiked in this area on a regular basis for over 20 years, although not in cold weather. It's very rough terrain on a nice summer day. I can't imagine even overnight survival in these temperatures on this terrain, especially in sneakers and without any survival equipment. The whole scenario just doesn't make sense to me, especially being dropped off at the trailhead by her mother in such low temperatures with such minimal clothing and no equipment.

There are thieves that frequent trailheads, but they usually break into cars parked at trailheads.

There have been cases of foul play in the area - Louise Chaput, who has her own thread here, was murdered near a trailhead in the fall of 2001. That case is unsolved. NH - Louise Chaput

 

[ellabella]

I just cant fathom, if she was a member of these New England hiking facebook groups, and had climbed numerous mountains, even in summer conditions, how she planned this? It truly... seems unbelievable, and I honestly hope it is. I don't know what to think. Though my gut tells me she is up there, and it makes my heart hurt.

 

[acutename]

Every parent should have hope in this situation. I know I wouldn't criticize them for hanging on to that small thread.

ETA: improved wording to be less critical. Sorry.

shelter.... I have been thinking about that... she would probably need to go below tree line and crawl under some iced over stunted trees to get out of the wind. she has still been out very long in too cold weather IMO.

 

[azure]

This case has me absolutely dumbfounded, and the more I dig into this rabbit hole, the stranger it all gets. As of now, I am taking the details we have at face value and believe this is a perfect storm of naïveté and excitement vs the harsh realities of Mother Nature.

 

[Snoopster]

This case has me absolutely dumbfounded, and the more I dig into this rabbit hole, the stranger it all gets. As of now, I am taking the details we have at face value and believe this is a perfect storm of naïveté and excitement vs the harsh realities of Mother Nature.

Yeah.
I kind of wish that we shouldn't take it at face value, as that might mean the ES might have run off somewhere else.
I just don't believe this at this time. But we don't know.

 

[Choochoobella]

I'm so sad for this very promising young woman. A few bullet points from the link below with bolding by me:

As a New Hampshire National Guard helicopter ferried search teams to peaks in Franconia Notch on Tuesday, Fish and Game officials said the effort to locate a hiker missing there since Sunday is entering the recovery phase.

Emily Sotelo, of Westford, Mass., whose 20th birthday is today, was dropped off by her mother at the Lafayette Place Campground around 4:30 a.m. Sunday, said Capt. Michael Eastman, a co-leader of the Fish and Game search-and-rescue team.

In an e-mail, Vanderbilt University confirmed that Sotelo is a sophomore majoring in biochemistry and chemical biology.

Sotelo was supposed to rendezvous with her mother in the parking lot at the Flume Gorge between 3 and 3:30 p.m. Sunday, but she never arrived, prompting an extensive response by Fish and Game and volunteer search-and-rescue organizations.

On Tuesday morning, before the helicopter took searchers up from the Cannon Tram parking lot to the tops of the three peaks along Sotelo’s intended route, Eastman said it was likely that later Tuesday he would inform the Sotelo family that Emily had died and that the aim of searchers would be to find her body.

While she carried a “small amount of food” in a backpack and a water bladder, the water in the bladder would likely have frozen, said Eastman. Sotelo did not carry a lighter or other means of starting a fire to melt water or for heat.

Search for hiker turns to recovery

FRANCONIA — As a New Hampshire National Guard helicopter ferried search teams to peaks in Franconia Notch on Tuesday, Fish and Game officials said the effort to locate a hiker

www.unionleader.com

 

[ItalyReader]

I just cant fathom, if she was a member of these New England hiking facebook groups, and had climbed numerous mountains, even in summer conditions, how she planned this? It truly... seems unbelievable, and I honestly hope it is. I don't know what to think. Though my gut tells me she is up there, and it makes my heart hurt.

She was trying to fit in the remaining peaks before her birthday, today. Very sad.
This pressure explains why she went.

 

[ifindedout]

She was trying to fit in the remaining peaks before her birthday, today. Very sad.
This pressure explains why she went.

I agree, a subset of get-there-itis. Also, she may have intended to go ultralight. MOO

 

[helenff]

After the thread about the young family who succumbed to the heat while hiking, it became apparent to me that people who want to hike will sometimes do so regardless of whether it looks like a good decision to outsiders (who also have the benefit of hindsight). It seems so strange to me that she not only assumed she would do it, but would be done by 3pm or so - but perhaps that is simply the confidence of youth and some summer hiking. Sad.

 

[Skigirl]

Her wish to bag another peak during November makes a lot more sense in the context of being a college student in Tennessee. She would have had limited opportunities to hike in New Hampshire, and Thanksgiving break would be a brief window of opportunity. Also, Vanderbilt is in Tennessee, and as a northern transplant in the south, I can say that the southern states are a month or two behind New England weather-wise this time of year, and having been in Nashville for school may have caused her to think of November as relatively mild.

I still hope that they find her safe somehow; she sounds like a very smart, talented, driven woman with a lot to offer. I hope that a miscalculation didn’t cost her her life.

 

[ItalyReader]

the confidence of youth and some summer hiking

I remember when I was 20.

I went hiking every so often but I would not call myself experienced.
I just went along with others assuming everything would be fine. Did I bring along even one of the 10 essentials?
No. I probably didn’t even bring water.

Of course, this was a gross error on my part, and I can now point the finger at myself and say this is the folly of youth.

With age and experience, including reading a mass quantity of material on the subject, I have realized that truly an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

All of us have the goal of minimizing these types of stories that hit the news and message boards/forums.

And how can we minimize them?

We can spread the word about the 10
Essentials. If you don’t know what they are, have a Google and spread the word.

Our shared goal is to reduce the tragic number and frequency of these cases.

 

[helenff]

I will edit into my post that I'm not blaming the victim - I just wish she had the right kind of experience to know it was not a good idea, but for some of us it's obvious and for some of us it needs time

 

[Countem]

“Despite beginning her quest some two hours before the first light came into Franconia Notch on Sunday morning, Eastman said Sotelo’s only light source was her cell phone.”

Very unfortunate, as this means her cellphone battery was likely drained quickly, as discussed previously.

Search for hiker turns to recovery

FRANCONIA — As a New Hampshire National Guard helicopter ferried search teams to peaks in Franconia Notch on Tuesday, Fish and Game officials said the effort to locate a hiker

www.unionleader.com