Year Ends in Mountains North of Pasadena with Rash of Rescues

[Updated Friday, December 30, 2016 | 7:16 a.m.]   Less than 12 hours after Altadena Mountain Rescue and Los Angeles County Fire rescued a hiker stranded atop of a waterfall in Eaton Canyon on Thursday, the same crews were back in the mountains north of Pasadena at 12:45 a.m. this morning hunting a group of four lost hikers wandering in the dangerous, rugged darkness.

The unusually high number of sunny days this year has resulted in a record number of rescues in the Angeles National Forest.. The last week of 2016, with several clear warm dry days and out of town visitors aplenty, is proving to be no exception to the trend.

In the Friday morning incident, a group of three men and one women called 911 around shortly before 1 a.m. to report they were lost and had been walking around in the mountains for several hours trying to find their way out.

Rescuers reported “the young hikers were concerned about bothering local emergency services, but after four fours in the cold, rain and dark they decided to call 911.”

Los Angeles County Fire got coordinates from the 911 call and sent a helicopter and Altadena Search and Rescue to look for them. The helicopter located them quickly after spotting their cell phone light and hoisted them to safety.

The hikers, a 24-year-old Los Angeles woman with a 14-year-old teenager and two men aged 19 and 21 visiting from Mexico, were not injured.

The helicopter dropped the hikers off at Charles White Park in Altadena where deputies took them back to their cars at Lake Avenue and East Loma Alta Drive, where they jad started their hike. It was raining when the hikers were being dropped off at the park.

Earlier, on Thursday in an operation that started at 1:20 p.m., many of the same rescue crews had saved a 44-year-old man from Cerritos who had been returning from a hike to a waterfall when he lost sight of the trail and became stranded on a steep hillside approximately 50 feet off a trail.

Rescue crews set up ropes and lowered a rescuer to the stranded hiker, who assisted the hiker in pulling himself up the hill to safety.

The hiker was not injured and was able to hike out on his own, a Sheriff’s Dept. spokesperson said.