Exhausted Hikers on Skyline Trail/Cactus-to-Clouds
January 1, 2025
Skyline Trail, Palm Springs
2025-001
Written by: Richard Yocum
Having just concluded 2024 with 43 missions under our belts, it didn’t take long for the first callout of 2025. The mid-afternoon callout on January 1 was for a hiker too exhausted to continue on the Skyline Trail, the first stretch of the notorious Cactus-to-Clouds hike, ascending from the desert floor to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway upper station. It turned out to be 3 exhausted hikers. Their phone ping indicated they were on or near the trail at about 6,900’ elevation. This is a lower elevation than the majority of our missions on upper Skyline, which often involve hikers who encounter snow and/or ice near the start of “the traverse” beginning at about 7,500’ elevation, or head up a couloir too soon rather than staying on trail until it ascends Grubb’s Notch to Long Valley. The map shows the locations of hikers on some our missions over the past several years.
As I made the short drive from “downtown” Idyllwild to my cabin to sort my gear, I immediately began monitoring radio traffic from RSO Aviation’s Rescue9 helicopter. I listened as they were able to hoist all 3 hikers and deliver them to AMR at the visitors’ center. I let our team know that we could stand down. Even when Aviation is going to respond to a mission, RMRU prefers to get the callout, or at least a standby notification, which allows the team time to prepare gear and rearrange schedules so that we can then respond quickly if Aviation is not able to complete the mission, most often because of weather conditions.
This is a good reminder that each year RMRU has several missions for hikers attempting Cactus-to-Clouds. Backpacker Magazine rates this hike one of the hardest day hikes in the world, ascending more than 10,000 feet to the summit of Mt. San Jacinto. Too often, hikers underestimate the strenuousness, time required, the heat of the desert, or appear to be surprised when they encounter steep snow and ice conditions at higher elevations, or don’t realize that alpine weather often changes rapidly, or are ill-prepared in any number of ways. Fortunately, this mission had a good outcome.
RMRU Members Involved: (Trygve Anderson, David Bever, Shana Gutovich, Andy Hayt, Jeff Leisner, Geoff Marshall, Vinay Rao, and Richard Yocum)
Other Agencies Involved: Riverside County Sheriff’s Aviation Rescue9 helicopter