Injured Hikers on Tahquitz Peak Traverse
March 1-3, 2025
The Traverse below Tahquitz Peak, Idyllwild, CA
Mission 2025-007
Written by: Richard Yocum
Once every decade or two we have a “pull-out-all-the-stops” mission that requires us to reach deep and summon all our strength and skills – this was such a mission. At 3:07 pm on Saturday March 1, Riverside Dispatch received a 911 call from two hikers saying they had fallen down the side of a peak, were unable to get up, had no food or water, and one had a broken leg. RMRU had just come off an all-day mission when the team was activated. The GPS coordinates from the 911 call placed the hikers at 8,400’ elevation and about 500’ below the traverse trail on a steep slope below Tahquitz Peak. We knew the traverse trail to be hazardous in winter, especially when covered by ice or hard snow, with our last mission there being a fatality. And we knew to approach this mission with the highest urgency because the hikers had taken an incredibly significant fall likely resulting in major trauma and were not prepared for the winter conditions or the incoming storm. Riverside Sheriff’s Rescue 9 helicopter was unable to approach the area due to the weather.
A decision was made for ground teams to use the Devils Slide Trail rather than the South Ridge Trail to access the location. The first hasty teams started up the mountain from Humber Park and established a forward operating base (FOB) at Chinquapin Flat at 8,620 feet. Only those SAR personnel with crampons and proficient in ice axe self-arrest continued past the FOB to the traverse, which was iced over and highly exposed and dangerous. A second helicopter, Cal Fire H608, was unable to locate the subjects but later was able to hover over the FOB and do a nighttime drop of RMRU’s 600’ ropes that we anticipated would be needed. As the night progressed, additional RMRU teams were arriving with the gear needed to set up rope rescue systems. With the temperature dropping into the 20’s and winds 20-30 mph and building, we requested Cal OES mutual aid for an additional 20 Type 1 snow and ice searchers.
It was after midnight when the first team was able to start across the traverse looking for signs where the hikers had slid off the highly exposed icy trail or any lights below. With strong winds buffeting our faces we struggled to hear any responses to our shoutouts. After several hundred meters and more than a half-dozen shoutouts, we were elated to hear both a male voice and female voice respond! We continued our shoutouts as we moved further west along the traverse so that we could estimate in the wind and darkness where to set up our anchors so that our rescuers would be lowered directly above our subjects rather than too far to one side or the other. As a mutual aid rescuer and Richard were lowered down the icy 40- to 45-degree slope over car-sized boulders and cliffs, we were amazed that our subjects had survived that fall and were able to respond. Reaching our subjects was delayed as we waited with headlamp visibility only 50’ in dense fog as another 100’ of rope had to be added to our 600’-ropes.
It was about 3:30 am, 12½ hours after their fall, when we reached the two subjects huddled together in the darkness and shivering vigorously against the wind and brutal cold. They had come to rest on a shallower slope where the tops of manzanita poking through the snow had arrested their fall. He had lost a shoe on the fall and his foot was swollen with frostbite. We assessed major facial trauma in one subject and a probable tib-fib fracture in the other. With the subjects secure on the slope, our immediate efforts were directed to insulating them from the snow and treating their hypothermia with additional layers of clothing, socks, and tarps, and sleeping bag, and later a heated blanket. We provided them with much-needed calories and hydration.
Neither subject was ambulatory. We knew that it would be impossible to conduct a litter raise via the difficult route we had descended and so Richard instructed the rope team to haul up both ropes, break down the entire system, and reset the anchors and system at a new location west along the traverse. The brutal cold was rapidly depleting our radio batteries throughout this mission, creating very challenging radio communications. Shortly after the first light Rescue 9 made a valiant attempt to reach our location but was unable to descend low enough into the canyon due to high winds.
Raising both subjects, one at a time, up the 700’ icy slope took many hours and was exhausting to all involved, including litter attendants and haul teams. Our subjects remained amazingly stoic without complaining, despite the pain and cold they were experiencing. Working the litter back up to the traverse over boulders, post holing(sinking into soft snow up to your knees or more) into the snow over manzanita, and fighting the cold and wind without additional calories as his food had been consumed by our subjects, Richard reached a level of exhaustion he had not experienced in a long time and felt himself succumbing to hypothermia, rendered useless from that point on. Fortunately, additional SAR personnel were arriving and taking over as the rescuers who were first in the field found their energy expended.
For a brief time, we had a couple breaks in the clouds and Cal Fire H608 was able to lower two crew members to the ground in anticipation of a hoist evacuation of our subjects. However, the storm was building steadily and after a couple of hours of watching the clouds darken and the wind continued to build, Alex and Richard decided to hike out on their own, followed shortly thereafter by the Cal Fire crew members. On their descent down the mountain, they passed several fresh SAR teams from other counties hiking up to resupply the teams with fluids, food, fuel, and shelter and to assist the teams with moving our subjects in their litters.
The lowest risk option as that second night approached was to continue to manage our two subjects in their hypo wraps (wrapping subjects in sleeping bags with waterproof tarps) while secured on the traverse. Some SAR personnel were able to take shelter in the hut at the nearby fire lookout tower, but it was not feasible to move our two subjects up to the hut. The storm dropped about 6” of new snow overnight on the traverse. It was a long, blustery, and brutally cold night for those on the mountain. A number of SAR members had to turn their attention to self-care as they began to experience hypothermia. Still without air support, the teams began the painstakingly slow process of setting up rope systems to move the two litters across the 450 meters of dangerously-exposed traverse to the FOB, and then north on the PCT to Saddle Junction where they were met by additional SAR teams with fresh supplies.
The weather forecast for the next morning was for the storm to begin to dissipate. The ground teams identified a potential hoist location near to Saddle Junction and both subjects were moved to that location. With the advent of most welcome patches of blue sky, Rescue 9 was able to hoist one subject, followed shortly thereafter by Cal Fire H608 hoisting the second subject, at 10:45 am on Monday, March 3. Both subjects began their multi-day hospital stays for the management of even more medical problems than were readily apparent in the field. Meanwhile, all SAR personnel elected to hike out of the field on their own.
This two-day, two-night, complex mission in challenging “full alpine conditions” spanning the harshest winter storm of the year in the San Jacinto mountains required the dedicated, coordinated efforts of a total of 62 SAR volunteers (not including additional law enforcement personnel) from 11 different SAR teams from 5 counties; helicopter support from 3 different agencies (Riverside and Orange Counties and Cal Fire); fire personnel from Idyllwild Fire and Cal Fire; and the US Forest Service. There were no injuries to any rescue personnel. The stamina and stoicism that our subjects displayed to stay alive were nothing short of amazing. We are gratified that both subjects have been discharged from the hospital and are making satisfactory progress in their recoveries.
RMRU Members Involved: (David Altenburg, David Bever, Coby Brown, Kase Chong, Alex Cochran, Matt Frenken, Kyleen Gonzalez, Shana Gutovich, Andy Hayt, Glenn Henderson, Jeff Leisner, Benji Mata, Shani McCullough, Tobias Moyneur, Blake Rankin, Stephanie Robertson, Solan Watts, Ray Weden, and Richard Yocum)
Other Agencies Involved: (Riverside County Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team (SERT) and Aviation Rescue 9 helicopter, Idyllwild Fire Department, Orange County Mountain Rescue Team, Orange County Fire Air Support, Sierra Madre Search and Rescue, Antelope Valley Search and Rescue, San Dimas Mountain Rescue Team, Rim of the World Search and Rescue, San Gorgonio Search and Rescue Team, San Bernardino Cave and Technical Rescue Team, San Bernardino Mountain Search and Rescue, San Diego Mountain Rescue Team, San Diego Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue, Riverside County Cal Fire hand crew, Cal Fire H608 helicopter, and US Forest Service)