A South Shore man called his girlfriend around 11:00am on 12/22 to tell her that he would be cross country skiing around Hope Valley for the day. Later that evening, after he had not returned home, she made some phone calls and then drove around South Shore, finally locating his truck at Beacon Restaurant in Camp Richardson. She notified the El Dorado County police, who later called Placer County and Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue. A team callout was placed around 2:45am on 12/23. The team met at the garage and arrived at Camp Richardson around 4:30am, along with members of the El Dorado Search and Rescue. TNSAR broke up into 3 teams, and proceeded to search on Angora Ridge, up Fallen Leak Lake road to Lily Lake, and all along Spring Creek. Tracks (foot and ski) were everywhere due to the Christmas time visitors enjoying the mostly flat terrain. By 9:00am, the teams began to head back to Beacon's to re-group. At noontime the Teams went back out, checking the same area's but in smaller chunks and even more methodically. By 3:00pm there was no sign of the skier, and the search was winding down. Given the friendly nature of the terrain and its close proximity to Highway 89 and Camp Richardson, El Dorado County police were beginning to believe that the skier may have left his truck and the area by some other means. Although there still was no word from the skier, who lives at the base of Kingsbury Grade, the search teams were told to go home. TNSAR arrived back at the garage at around 4:30pm on 12/23. This was the third search of the 2003-2004 season. UPDATE, 12/26. The missing skier was found dead in a cabin at Spring Creek on Christmas Eve. The cause appears to be an apparent suicide.

Sheriff	Dispatch	Comm Van	Truck	Skiers	Snow Cats	Snowmobiles
Dan Ingalls	Jackie Thomas Marilyn Stack Amy Horne	Kathy Chilcote John Chilcote	Derek Wilson	Jim Reinstra Dirk Schoonmaker Jonathan Laine Mike Kennett Mark Johnson Paul Honeywell		Scott Baumgardner Steve Hoyt