Snow and weather made the rescue much more difficult. Photo: Idyllwild.com
On March 1, two hikers tumbled 800 feet down snow-covered mountain slopes near Idyllwild, California. Helicopter rescue crews were unable to reach them for two days due to high winds and low cloud cover, eventually extricating them on the third day to receive medical care.
The hikers, a couple identified as Veda Lin and Christopher Ng, said they slipped on ice around 3 p.m. while hiking on Tahquitz Peak at 8,900 feet of elevation. Their fall came to a rest 800 feet below the incident, leaving Ng with a fractured leg and Lin with fractures on her sternum, spine, and face.
“Trying to cover our heads and then, when we got to the bottom, a lot of it was panic…seeing if we could find each other, making sure that the other was alive and able to respond, seeing what we could do from there,” Ng told CBS News Los Angeles when recounting the fall.
While Ng lost his phone in the fall, Lin had hers to call emergency services for help. Rescue teams were dispatched to find them, including three helicopter teams from the Riverside Sheriffs Department, Cal Fire, and Orange County Fire Authority. However, winds of 45 mph and cloud cover kept the helicopter teams from accessing the couple, forcing them to spend the night alone in temperatures as low as 15 degrees Fahrenheit with just light jackets and sweatpants.
“The first night, we huddled under a tree,” Lin recalled. “The tree blocked the wind, which was really nice. Most of it, it was still freezing. Body warmth and heat held us together until search and rescue could get us.”
“Being huddled and having each other’s reassurance, I think really helped with the will power and determination to just keep it going,” Lin added. “If I can hear Chris’ breath, I need to also keep it together and we’re just gonna get through the night.”
Ng, who lost a shoe in the fall, suffered from frostbite on his foot that first night, causing his foot to swell.
Ground rescue crews managed to reach the pair 12 hours after the fall, providing them with sleeping bags and jackets, as well as making a fire to provide extra warmth.
The rescue team determined that the hikers’ injuries were too severe to hike out, so they called the helicopters for support. Yet, on the second day, the helicopter teams were again thwarted by persistent winds and cloud cover, forcing them to call the mission off.
Rescuers spent the second night on the mountain with Ng and Lin until relatively improved conditions on March 3 allowed the helicopters to successfully access the injured hikers – their third day on the mountain. Ng’s injuries were determined to be more severe, so he was lifted first by the Riverside Sheriffs team and taken to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs. Lin was later picked up by the Cal Fire helicopter.
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“Considering how everything went, the fact that we don’t have any permanent injuries, and as of now don’t need surgery, is really amazing and a miracle in and of itself,” Lin said.
“It was just such amazing work from them, because they had to take care of us as well as fighting off the weather themselves,” she continued. “You know when you’re a kid, and people say, ‘Who are your heroes?’ Your mom, your dad, your family, right? For me, the search and rescue team when they came in, they actually restored my faith in humanity. I think right now is a difficult time in the world for a lot of people and, you know, those people really gave it their all to save strangers.”
“So appreciative to them, they just really put it all out there,” Ng added. “They always had someone make sure that we were okay, even in the most stormy weather.”
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco also praised the work of his team.
“Over 20 mountain rescue team members hiked in to save these injured victims who most definitely would have died from exposure to the elements,” said Bianco. “This was a very long, and coordinated effort with amazing partners and volunteers. Outstanding job by all!”
A crowdfunding campaign has been launched to support the hiker’s recovery.
