A 19-year-old man and 20-year-old woman from Salt Lake City were rescued after spending 36 hours in freezing conditions on California’s Mount Shasta, officials confirmed.
The pair, whose names were not released, set out at 4 a.m. Monday, Oct. 12, for what they had planned as a single-day hike while a companion pushed on toward the 14,179-foot summit. Temperatures in the Avalanche Gulch area had already dropped to between 14 and 16 degrees by the time they placed their emergency call at approximately 10:20 p.m. That night, according to the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office.
They were cold, exhausted, and critically undersupplied. The hikers lacked adequate clothing, food, and water to survive overnight on the mountain.
Deputies who took the call instructed them to keep moving downward to preserve body heat. The pair managed to reach Helen Lake, roughly 10,400 feet up, by 2 a.m. Tuesday, but their phones died shortly after that check-in, severing communication with rescuers.
Search-and-rescue crews and California Highway Patrol Air Operations launched operations at first light Tuesday. Around 9 a.m., a CHP helicopter crew spotted two figures waving from below — but the individuals turned out to be different hikers, not the missing Salt Lake City pair.
Ground teams and aerial units pressed on through the afternoon. A second search contingent, composed of volunteer rescuers and a U.S. Forest Service climbing ranger, concentrated efforts on Cascade Gulch below Horse Camp.
At approximately 4 p.m., searchers heard shouting echoing from the drainage. They located the stranded hikers near the bottom of the gulch, about 1,000 feet from the McBride Springs Trail.
The two had reached Horse Camp around 5 a.m. Tuesday, only to lose sight of the trail in deteriorating visibility. They wandered into the steep, dry river canyon and traveled roughly three miles down the drainage before becoming boxed in between cliffs measuring 30 to 50 feet high.
Both hikers escaped injury and were able to climb out with assistance from the rescue team. By the time they reached safety, they had been moving for approximately 36 hours straight.
Their timeline had already shown warning signs. The pair reached Red Banks on the Avalanche Gulch route around 5 p.m. Monday — a full five hours past the recommended turnaround time for climbers on Mount Shasta, authorities noted.
The Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office issued thanks to search-and-rescue volunteers, Mount Shasta climbing rangers, and CHP Air Operations for coordinating the successful extraction.
Officials emphasized that this marked the third rescue on the Avalanche Gulch route in just one month. Warning signs posted at the Bunny Flat trailhead advise against attempting the climb during this season due to deteriorating conditions, rockfall hazards, and the onset of winter weather.