Three people died on Mt. Baldy and powerful Santa Ana winds have prevented helicopters from recovering their bodies, authorities said Tuesday.
On Monday at around 11:30 a.m., search and rescue teams responded to a request to find an injured man, 19, who had fallen 500 feet while hiking near Devil’s Backbone, a sharp ridge flanked by steep drops, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release. A friend who’d been traveling with him had hiked to an area with cell service and provided GPS coordinates to rescuers, officials said.
A sheriff’s air rescue team spotted the injured hiker, along with two other unidentified people, from a helicopter but strong winds made it unsafe to carry out a rescue, the release states.
A Los Angeles County airship was able to hoist down an air medic to the bodies around 7:30 p.m., officials said. The medic confirmed all three people were dead but severe winds again prevented the helicopter from recovering them, they said.
An operation to recover the three bodies was underway Tuesday, the sheriff’s department said. The 19-year-old’s identity was not released, and the other two bodies have not been identified, authorities said.
Rising 10,064 feet above sea level in the San Gabriel Mountains, Mt. Baldy is instantly recognizable as the backdrop to the Los Angeles skyline. It’s also one of the deadliest peaks in the United States, in part due to its accessibility from such a large city. That proximity is a draw for both experienced hikers and those who are ill-prepared for the terrain and weather, which can be up to 40 degrees cooler than the basin below. Winter storms recently blanketed the mountaintop in snow.
There have been more than 100 rescues on Mt. Baldy since 2020, and 14 deaths, including that of actor Julian Sands, who went missing on the mountain in January 2023. His remains were found nearly six months later.
