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Missing Whiteface Skier Found..........

cdskier

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More details are needed on his side of the story...
 

BenedictGomez

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We were talking about this this weekend, and I mentioned I think there's a chance he may have faked his own death.

If this happened at Stowe or Jay Peak etc... I would not have suggested that. But Whiteface is essentially a funnel, and it's difficult to imagine ending up someplace where it's impossible to find you given all the assets (dogs, drones, people, helis) involved. Now, if the Lookout area were up and running, I wouldnt say that, but the Lookout area of Whiteface wasnt open the day he went missing.
 

KustyTheKlown

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I was at whiteface on sunday with a buddy from Plattsburgh. His north country friends were saying the local rumors are that something fishy was going on, possibly involving an insurance scam, and that the wife refused access to the credit card and banking records when requested by the NYSP

whiteface was crawling with dogs and cops and volunteer search parties poking every tree well

I was skiing the (closed) line under the summit quad and some dude on the chair started screaming at me to dig, thinking he saw the guy. it was a piece of wood.
 

Whitey

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I was at whiteface on sunday with a buddy from Plattsburgh. His north country friends were saying the local rumors are that something fishy was going on, possibly involving an insurance scam, and that the wife refused access to the credit card and banking records when requested by the NYSP

whiteface was crawling with dogs and cops and volunteer search parties poking every tree well

Funny, Kusty - I was there too. But both Saturday and Sunday. If you think Sunday was crawling with dogs and search parties - you should have seen Saturday. National Guard and such.

Having seen what a huge undertaking it was - really makes me PO'd at the guy who did this. There were A LOT of resources tied up in that. A lot of people who gave up their weekends and spent it climbing around in the woods on a mountain in the snow. Included people having to rope and repel into the steeper areas of Whiteface & then get hauled back up. Watched them do it off of the left side of Wilmington Trail.

If this is a scam/dumb ass/drunk kind of thing - they should put a bunch of Chuckstah's ziplock bagged steak tips in his pockets and let those search dogs "find him" after starving them for a few days. . .
 
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KustyTheKlown

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i skied wilmington trail and was thinking how that long shitty short glade that drops to the drainage run out is so dangerous. i've only skied that glade once. made the mistake of dropping into it towards the very first entrance. so short, onto a run out that just goes on forever and ever. super easy for an intermediate skier to accidentally wind up in trouble in there, and there is so much area. very little vertical footage down to the runout, but just a huge area to need to search.
 

cdskier

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While this certainly could be a case of some sort of fraud or scam attempt...there's also a possibility of some sort of complete mental break here or something along those lines. He was found 5 days after disappearing wearing the same clothes including helmet and goggles that he was wearing while skiing? If I'm attempting to fake a disappearance, I'm not going to still be wearing my ski helmet and goggles nearly 3000 miles away 5 days later. There's much more to this story than has been released so far.
 

Jully

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While this certainly could be a case of some sort of fraud or scam attempt...there's also a possibility of some sort of complete mental break here or something along those lines. He was found 5 days after disappearing wearing the same clothes including helmet and goggles that he was wearing while skiing? If I'm attempting to fake a disappearance, I'm not going to still be wearing my ski helmet and goggles nearly 3000 miles away 5 days later. There's much more to this story than has been released so far.

Yeah, that is what baffles me. How is this not a bigger part of the story? How did a Canadian get to CA and be found wearing ski gear?
 

JimG.

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I have to believe there must be a lot of phone footage of the guy in ski gear out there.
 

chuckstah

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Funny, Kusty - I was there too. But both Saturday and Sunday. If you think Sunday was crawling with dogs and search parties - you should have seen Saturday. National Guard and such.

Having seen what a huge undertaking it was - really makes me PO'd at the guy who did this. There were A LOT of resources tied up in that. A lot of people who gave up their weekends and spent it climbing around in the woods on a mountain in the snow. Included people having to rope and repel into the steeper areas of Whiteface & then get hauled back up. Watched them do it off of the left side of Wilmington Trail.

If this is a scam/dumb ass/drunk kind of thing - they should put a bunch of Chuckstah's ziplock bagged steak tips in his pockets and let those search dogs "find him" after starving them for a few days. . .
Good plan.

Sent from my LGMS345 using AlpineZone mobile app
 

Bosco DaSkia

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Turns out they got his name wrong. It wasn’t “Filippidis”. It was F. Lapidus. He thought he was on his way to Guam...


 
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NYDB

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Ok, he got a haircut? In his ski boots and gear?

It's possible he bumped his noggin and was delusional for a bit. I've done that before. Usually doesn't last 5 days and I don't end up 3000 miles away.

More likely, he was on the run from something (gambling debt, running off with his mistress, fake death to claim insurance) found out it wasn't going to work, then pulled a walter white , but instead of getting naked, he donned his ski apparel and faked a fugue state to cover up his stupidity.
 
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