Party of Two Cliffed Out at Casa Diablo
On Friday, April 11 at 1844, the Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call for assistance from two hikers from Mammoth Lakes reported to be cliffed out near the summit of Casa Diablo mountain, and unable to descend.
They were reported to be unprepared to be out overnight. The Team was dispatched shortly thereafter, and Rescue Base was established via CalTopo at the junction of Casa Diablo Road and Forest Road 4S133C. The team responded to Base with rescue vehicles and team equipment.
A hasty team (including a Team wilderness EMT), Team 1, was deployed with medical equipment and personal rigging equipment. Two additional teams, Teams 2 and 3, were deployed shortly thereafter, consisting of 6 team members with additional rescue and rigging equipment.
A field team making their way toward the subjects as night falls.
Due to nightfall and the nature of the challenging terrain, including convoluted 4th and 5th class boulder fields, movement to the subjects' mapped location was more slow and tedious than expected. Eventually, after thorough searching and navigating, contact was made with both subjects, who were in somewhat different positions than originally reported, and were themselves separated by 5th class terrain. Team 1 and Team 3 joined up at Subject 1’s location, and Team 2 met Subject 2.
Travel was difficult through varied terrain after dark.
The subjects’ conditions were reported as stable, with minor injuries to Subject 2 from a fall. Both subjects were assessed and treated. Shortly thereafter, rescuers began to construct an exit strategy down through the boulder fields. While a 3rd class route exists on this mountain, accessing that route from the subjects’ location would have presented some unique challenges, so the teams opted to instead descend from the location of the subjects.
Reuniting the teams required an initial technical lower of Subject 2 down 5th class terrain. After the first lower, all teams and subjects were joined and began a group descent. The unified field team worked with our subjects to navigate the consequential terrain, utilizing rope systems and attended belays through areas of 4th and 5th class access. After several hours of navigating the boulder fields in the dark, the field team and both subjects arrived back at Rescue Base in the early hours of Saturday morning. The subjects declined further medical treatment and were driven back to their vehicle.
The operation concluded at approximately 0306 Saturday morning, and Team members received a few hours of sleep before reporting back to SAR HQ at 0800 for the start of our new candidate basic training.
IC: Rhoads Ops Leader: Bush Responders: Anderson, Beck, Brownlee, Haugh, Kaufman, Knight, Lipman, Mayernick, Patterson, Romanova, Salay, Wilson