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Three hikers rescued by helicopter from steep Northern California mountain ridge
ReThree hikers rescued by helicopter from steep Northern California mountain ridge
A helicopter crew hoisted three people off a steep mountainside in Sierra County, California, on Sunday after an emergency satellite device sent a distress signal. Several agencies took part in the rescue.
Three people stranded high on a steep mountainside in Northern California were rescued by helicopter on Sunday after a distress call sent crews racing to their location. The Sierra County Sheriff’s Office said the group was found on the Sierra Buttes, just south of a lookout tower near the mountain’s summit.
The sheriff’s office was alerted around 2:30 p.m. after a Garmin inReach satellite communication device sent an SOS signal to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. Deputies launched a search and rescue response and called in the Nevada County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Mountain Rescue Team as well as the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office’s RAVEN helicopter crew.
Once the helicopter crew spotted the stranded group, a rescue team member was lowered from the aircraft to reach them. All three were then hoisted off the mountainside and flown to a landing zone, where Sierra County deputies were waiting. Images and video released by officials show the helicopter working near the rugged slope as rescuers reached the trio.
“Due to the difficult terrain and hazardous location, a helicopter hoist rescue was necessary,” the sheriff’s office said. The agency thanked the teams involved for their “professionalism, coordination, and assistance” in bringing the operation to a successful conclusion.
The Sierra Buttes rise above the North Yuba River canyon, with a fire lookout near the top of the roughly 8,600-foot mountain, according to the Pacific Crest Trail Association. Authorities did not say how the three people became stranded or whether anyone was injured.
The rescue drew praise on social media, where commenters thanked the emergency crews and pointed to the RAVEN helicopter team’s role in assisting communities across the region. One person wrote that the unit had become “certainly” valuable to the region because it is used wherever it is needed. Another thanked the rescue teams for their “awesome work, coordination and knowledge,” and a third wrote, “Hats off to our emergency special teams!!”
The operation followed two other high-profile mountain rescues in Northern California earlier this month. Last week, a 39-year-old Florida man was flown to a hospital after he fell through a snow bridge and severely injured his leg on the Whitney Glacier. Rescuers reached the injured climber the following morning, but bad weather prevented an aerial extraction, and crews carried him to a viable helicopter landing zone the next day, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office said.
Also earlier this month, a 19-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman from Salt Lake City were rescued after becoming trapped between cliffs during a 36-hour ordeal on Mount Shasta. Both were uninjured, authorities said.
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