MOUNT BALDY VILLAGE, Calif. – A rescue team headed high into the San Gabriel Mountains on Tuesday to reach a man who became lost when bad weather set in during a weekend hike in the Mount Baldy area.
Nathan Freund, 27, of Camarillo used his cellphone at 8:30 a.m. to call the Mount Baldy fire station and tell search coordinators that he was OK and warm, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said.
Freund activated a GPS personal locating device which a helicopter crew detected, but the helicopter couldn't do the rescue because of heavy fog and ice conditions, said sheriff's spokeswoman Arden Wiltshire.
The hiker's location was in the Big Horn Peak area, Wiltshire said.
It was expected to take a ground team four to five hours to hike to Freund's location to lead him out.
The Sheriff's Department said Freund, an experienced hiker, set out Sunday with necessary supplies and equipment to spend the night. He planned to return from the mountains sometime Monday but a change in the weather left him disoriented.
Freund was able to send a cellphone message to his family to say he was lost.
To the east, a hiker remains missing in the San Bernardino Mountains after becoming disoriented in fog early this month. Dean Christy, 62, used his cellphone on Jan. 4 to report he was lost. Rescuers combed the snow-covered area for more than a week before calling off the search.
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