This Friday July 27, 2012 photo shows an unidentified hiker near Norman Clyde Peak, far right. On Monday, July 30, 2012, a search and rescue team was searching for hiker Gary Dankworth a day after he failed to return to camp from a planned climb up the mountain. Authorities said Dankworth, 60, vanished after telling friends he planned to climb the 13,855-foot Sierra Nevada peak by himself. (AP Photo/Brian Melley)
BIG PINE, Calif (AP) - Authorities are searching for a Carson City doctor who vanished after telling friends he planned to solo climb a nearly 14,000-foot peak in the Sierra Nevada.
Inyo County sheriff's spokeswoman Carma Roper says rescuers on Monday sought 60-year-old Gary Dankworth, a family physician from Carson City.
He left friends Saturday afternoon camped at Finger Lake in the John Muir Wilderness of Inyo National Forest to climb 13,855-foot Norman Clyde peak, a difficult endeavor in a rugged Palisades section of the Sierra containing four of California's highest peaks.
Climbers must scramble off trail over boulder fields, past glaciers and along a ridge with steep drops to reach the base of the mountain just to begin the ascent.
When Dankworth failed to return Sunday morning, his friends hiked out and called for help.