A helicopter hoist plucked three hikers from an exposed 8,600-foot ridgeline in the Tahoe National Forest after a satellite device triggered a rapid multi-agency rescue.
The Sierra County Sheriff’s Office received an SOS alert from Sierra Buttes around 2:30 p.m. Sunday, officials said in a social media post. The signal originated from a Garmin inReach satellite communicator carried by one of the stranded hikers.
Nevada County’s Search and Rescue Mountain Rescue Team and Washoe County’s RAVEN helicopter unit were called in as mutual aid. An aerial crew scoured the Sierra Buttes terrain before locating the three hikers on a steep, exposed ridgeline just south of the lookout tower.
“Due to the difficult terrain and hazardous location, a helicopter hoist rescue was necessary. The RAVEN crew lowered a rescue team member to the stranded individuals,” the Sierra County Sheriff’s Office wrote in its social media post.
The rescue marked the latest in a string of harrowing mountain emergencies across California this month. A 39-year-old Florida man spent two nights stranded on Shastina Peak with a badly injured leg before a massive operation brought him down. He had reached the 14,179-foot summit the previous Sunday afternoon when an erroneous GPS route diverted him onto the Whitney Glacier, where he fell through a snow bridge at 12,600 feet and severely injured his leg.
Earlier in October, two young hikers from Salt Lake City endured a freezing 36-hour ordeal on Mount Shasta after losing their way in treacherous conditions. The 19-year-old man and 20-year-old woman had planned only a day hike while a friend pushed on to the summit. They became trapped between towering cliffs on the 14,179-foot mountain and were too cold and exhausted to descend safely. Rescuers finally heard shouting from a gulch around 4 p.m. On Oct. 13 and located the pair near the bottom, about 1,000 feet from the McBride Springs Trail, after they called for help around 10:20 p.m. The previous night.
The Sierra Buttes rescue concluded successfully with all three hikers extracted by helicopter, though officials did not release their names, ages, or hometowns. The incident underscored the growing role of satellite communicators in backcountry emergencies, devices that can transmit distress signals far beyond cellular range.
The RAVEN helicopter unit, based in Washoe County, Nevada, regularly assists with cross-border rescue operations in the rugged Sierra Nevada region.