Missing Snowboarder at Mountain High
January 28, 2025
Mountain High Ski Resort, Wrightwood, CA
2025-004
Written by: Richard Yocum
The request for SAR mutual aid to LA County came early Monday afternoon for a briefing at 7 am on 1/28/2025, the following day. The request through the California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) was limited to “Type 1” searchers, which is the highest level of skills for mountain rescue teams, and each team assesses which members are available and currently possess the anticipated skills for the mission in order to participate safely.
After a 3 am wakeup and a long drive, I met Blake and Tobias and other responding SAR teams in the pre-dawn icy-cold darkness for the briefing in the parking lot of Mountain High Ski Resort in Wrightwood. At about 1:30 pm two days earlier, a 35-year-old very experienced snowboarder had disappeared from the other 3 members in his group just after beginning a run and has been missing since. Search efforts, starting within 1½ hours of his disappearance and continuing the next day, did not result in any clues. It had snowed about 12-15”, about half of which was after he disappeared, and the estimated temperatures dropped to about 10°F both nights since his disappearance.
For this 3rd day of searching, the 31 SAR responders rode the ski lift up the mountain to where he was last seen and, as directed by ski patrol, formed one long search line. We proceeded slowly and methodically down the slope to search the area near where he was last seen. The weather today was the first that allowed aerial searching. Although previous search efforts revealed no evidence that he had gone out of bounds, the steep drainage on the backside of the resort was an area of interest and was assigned to LA County’s Air Rescue 5 helicopter. As our search line was making progress, we experienced renewed hope when we heard over the radio that the helicopter had found fresh tracks in the snow. Shortly thereafter we were elated to learn that our missing person was found alive, talking, and in good spirits! From the place where he was last seen, he was found a straight-line distance of 1.6 miles and had descended about 2,560 feet in elevation. Perhaps most surprising was that he was able to survive in those conditions with a cotton sweatshirt and wool cap.
It was believed that he may have inadvertently ended up out of bounds due to poor visibility on the upper run. Nevertheless, this mission is a reminder of the dangers of out-of-bound activity. We would also like to remind people that wool and synthetic fabrics are a much better choice than cotton for staying warm.
RMRU Members Involved: (Tobias Moyneur, Blake Rankin, and Richard Yocum)
Other Agencies Involved: (LA County Sheriff’s Department and Air Rescue 5 helicopter, Mountain High Ski Patrol)
SAR teams from (Sierra Madre, San Diego Mountain Rescue, San Dimas Mountain Rescue, Kern County, Orange County, and Altadena Mountain Rescue)