Missing Hiker Fuller Ridge
July 7-10, 2024
Fuller Ridge, San Jacinto Mts.
2024-027
Written by: Eric Holden
Sunday, July 7 – The team had spent the morning practicing rope skills out at Big Rock in Lake Perris when at 11am we received a callout for an overdue hiker, Hantae Kim, near Fuller Ridge on Black Mountain Road. We already had two members at the Riverside Sheriff’s Aviation hangar as we had planned on practicing helicopter pickoffs throughout the rest of the day. The subject’s vehicle was found at the Fuller Ridge Trailhead.
It was decided that based upon the 100+ degree weather, and time being of the essence, we would fly most of the team members into the mountains as it is normally a 2-hour drive from Big Rock to the Fuller Ridge trailhead. Donny and Richard (Team 1) were immediately flown and hoisted down near Little Round Valley. Tobias and Andy (Team 2) were hoisted down to the subject’s Last Known Position “LKP” to begin to track. Trygve and Geoff (Team 3) were hoisted down to the top of Seven Pines Trailhead as this is a common location for subjects hik-ing the peak to get lost. I picked up the Command Post van at the hangar and drove to Black Mountain Road to run base and comms.
The Riverside County Search Dogs drove up to Fuller Ridge and searched the area around the LKP and did not find any sign. Team 2 was able to track footprints that went up and back from Castle Rocks on the Fuller Ridge Trail. Team 1 did not see these prints above Castle Rocks. Around 6pm I made the call to go Mutual Aid, as we would not have enough resources to search the next morning. All field teams completed their assignments without finding Mr. Kim.
Monday, July 8 – The search for Mr. Kim had gone up to Cal OES Mutual Aid. We now had search and rescue teams from Riverside Desert Sheriff Search and Rescue, San Diego County, Los Angeles County, and San Bernardino County to assist with the search. In addition to the ground teams, we also had RSO Aviation and RSO Drone team. During the evening of the July 7, we were able to get more information and found that Mr. Kim’s last cellphone signal was around the PCT 3 miles north of the Fuller Ridge trailhead.
All our search efforts were concentrated in this area for the day. Searchers were hoisted into various locations on the Pacific Crest Trail while ground teams started tracking the various for-est service roads and trails heading down towards Mr. Kim’s last location. Tracks were located leading in various directions. As darkness was setting in, all teams returned to base without lo-cating Mr. Kim.
Tuesday, July 9 – The search continued with more Cal OES mutual aid assets. In addition to the teams from the day before we now had Orange County SAR, Cal OES FIRIS, Los Angeles Air Rescue 5, California Highway Patrol Aviation, and the Riverside Sheriff’s ROVE team. The search areas were expanded heading down many of the canyons and drainages. Unfortunately, no new signs or clues were found on this day.
Wednesday, July 10 – The search continued, with this time assigning a team to canyoneering down the entire West Fork of Snow Creek. While the canyoneering team was being inserted, an RMRU member of the team located Mr. Kim from the helicopter, deceased, at the base of a 150ft waterfall. We reached out to Air Rescue 5 from Los Angeles County to assist with the re-covery of Mr. Kim.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Hantae Kim’s family and friends.
RMRU Members Involved: (Trygve Anderson, David Bever, Coby Brown, Matt Frenken, Don-ny Goetz, Andy Hayt, Glenn Henderson, Eric Holden, Jeffrey Leisner, Geoff Marshall, Tobias Moyneur, Vinay Rao, and Richard Yocum)
Other Agencies Involved: (Riverside County Search Dogs, Desert Sheriff’s Search and Rescue, Riverside Aviation Rescue 9, Riverside Aviation STAR 9, RSO Drone Team, RSO ROVE, RSO SERT, RSO Cabazon Station, Cal OES FIRIS, CHP Aviation, Los Angeles County Air Rescue 5, San Diego Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue, San Diego Mountain Rescue Team, Sierra Madre Search and Rescue, San Bernardino Mountain Search and Rescue Team, San Bernardino Cave and Technical Rescue Team, Orange County Search and Rescue, Orange County Sheriff’s Department, Bear Valley Search and Rescue, and Victor Valley Search and Rescue)