When his 17-year-old son and his friend went on a ten-day hike on February 26 on the Pacific Crest Trail, near the San Gorgonio Mountain in Southern California, Cesar Ramirez said he wasn’t concerned. The teenagers, Riley Ramirez, 17, of Cypress and Cole White, 17, of Portland, Oregon were experienced hikers with enough food in their backpacks. They brought a tent and snowshoes, and had rigorous training.
However, when the snow began to fall by the foot-load in the mountains east of Los Angeles, Ramirez lost contact with his son and his friend via a tracking app. They were last heard from on February 28. He immediately called the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department who sent a helicopter to the hikers’ last known location. They followed the boys’ footprints and were able to find and rescue them on Friday, March 3. Ramirez’s son had lost his jacket in the wind, and their tent had been damaged, according to his father.
The boys thought they were going to die.
The lucky rescue came as California struggled to dig residents from up to 10 feet of snow after several storms battered the state. Governor Gavin Newsom declared states of emergency in 13 counties, including San Bernardino County, where the massive snowfall caused the closure of roads, resulted in power outages, collapsed roofs, and trapped some residents for days.
Sergeant John Scalise of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said the boys were hypothermic but lucky to be alive. They had huddled together for three nights to stay warm. They were well-prepared for the hike, but not for the huge amounts of snow, according to the law enforcement officer.
Another strong storm dumped even more snow on Northern California mountain areas on Saturday, and the National Weather Service in Sacramento issued a winter storm warning that was in effect until early Monday.
