We think of Brian often

There's been no news to report here, but of course his friends and family think of Brian very often.

Recently I received a note from an outdoorsman who heard of his disappearance and tracked the story. He didn't know Brian, but he wrote to say that to this day he thinks about what happened.

I appreciated that note.

It reminded me that people will, on occasion, read this blog. So if you've come to read, thank you.

I should mention that the blog is posted under my pen-name (John Gordon). I'm John Gordon Faughnan, Brian's eldest brother. (Steven is my other brother, Claire is our sister.)

Matt Gunn - met Brian a few days before he disappeared

I wonder sometimes how often people disappear around Whistler BC. Over the past 7 years I've not seen evidence that disappearances are all that common. That's reassuring.

In one look I came across this reference in a web site maintained by Matt Gunn of Vancouver BC. It turns out that Matt spoke with Brian a few days before he disappeared ...

Scrambling Accidents

... Brian Faughnan went missing in the Whistler backcountry in the summer of 2002. An extensive search failed to turn up any evidence about what happened. I met brian a few days before his disappearance while working at MEC and answered some questions he had about good hiking and scrambling destinations. We discussed rainbow mountain, which is where the search team believes he went missing. This story is a real tragedy and reminds me of the inherent danger of hiking alone...

I assume Matt means MEC (mountain expedition coop) in Vancouver. We know Brian bought a technical jacket there.

This is the first new piece of information around Brian's disappearance since 2002. It fits with with everything else -- Brian was expecting to do some hiking and exploring around Whistler and specifically Rainbow mountain.

We don't, of course, know if he ever actually got to the Rainbow mountain. Vancouver had discontinued trailhead registration at that time.