Sam Sayers route, most likely after 5 years of searching.

This flight goes from Sams Col just south of Vesper Peak, SW and eventually crosses the SW ridge at 5000 feet ele before continuing onto the very dangerous SW aspect of Vesper. At the 50 second mark from lower center to upper right on the screen is Sam's first opportunity to cross the SW ridge. The second place in in the same frame beyond the lower boulder field. The first saddle is just above 5k ele and the second is at 4840. Both correspond with a creek or canyon feature SW of the SW ridge. Here the slope is steepens past 50 degrees and is filling up with intermittent cliffs. Careful examination of the 10 foot contours and lidar shading in CalTopo reveals a cliff band at 4720 ele and another at 4600. Both of these bands are wide and are very likely places for Sam to be. They would have been hard to see from above and difficult to negotiate and are funneling in nature. Sam was further disadvantaged by her shorts and short sleeves in the dense brush. The current search flight on my page cover this area. This area has not been searched at any time with a possible exception of the original helo flight tape may have caught it on the way in but there are clouds in the area. After these cliff bands the terrine gets a lot worse and is impassable to most.

[@thejenniebailey]

Thank you for this footage! Question: Hadn't Sam done this hike multiple times before? The most confounding thing to me is thinking that she would have gone down a separate route.

[@EricThompsonClimber]

She simply got turned around in the col below the summit. It could have happened to anyone. Climbers going the wrong way off of a mountain peak is a very common occurence.

[@SteveNicholson-bk4tf]

I think this more likely what happened than a fall into a glacier. Came down the wrong side and went to far before releasing what she did. Then got into trouble on these cliffs. Nobody around here to see anything.