Search for hikers near Heaton Flats

Cy Kaicener · Post by **Cy Kaicener** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 10:36 am

Rescuers are looking for missing hikers near Heaton Flats
http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_9608214

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 10:49 am

Apparently they found one person: http://www.kget.com/news/state/story.as ... 2bacc2b8da

AW~ · Post by **AW~** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 11:43 am

Thanks for the news...hopefully this guy they found has info that leads to the other guy today. It was listed as Iron Mountain, so seems that was searched yesterday. Not that many options....

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 3:01 pm

I guess you could go down the wrong ridge? Wish the news reports had just a bit more detail.

AW~ · Post by **AW~** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 11:21 am

An online comment says this resulted in death...should be another news story on this soon then...in other news, a girl was killed after the car she was in lost control off GlendoraMtn road.

AW~ · Post by **AW~** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 5:17 pm

Update:

http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_9618080

"MT. BALDY VILLAGE
Searchers find body of missing hiker
One of two men missing in the San Gabriel Mountains west of Mt. Baldy Village was found dead Tuesday.

Wang Zvo-Zhong, 46, of Hacienda Heights was found dead about 6 a.m., said Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. Craig Boyett.

Chao Lui, 36, was found at 3 p.m. Monday and reported to deputies where his partner had fallen.

Zvo-Zhong was found about 1 1/2 miles southwest of Iron Mountain, Boyett said.

Members of the San Dimas, Montrose and Sierra Madre search-and-rescue teams worked with helicopters from the Sheriff's Department in the search.

Family members reported the men missing after they did not check in Sunday night when they hiked the Heaton Flat trail in the canyon of the San Gabriel River.

The hikers started their hike Sunday morning
"

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 5:41 pm

sux

Details have been hard to come by. I wonder what went down.

Post by **HikeUp** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 5:53 pm

1.5 miles southwest of Iron possibly puts them on the WSW ridge on the north side of Allison Gulch and not on the SSW ridge that the 'regular' trail follows.

The WSW ridge is the same ridge Tom and Travis climbed in February.

Thoughts and prayers with friends and family.

FIGHT ON · Post by **FIGHT ON** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 6:56 pm

Hikin_Jim wrote:sux

Details have been hard to come by. I wonder what went down.

Totally agree.

I wonder where he fell from. I have never been on that Allison Mine Trail but you can make it out from the Heaton Flat Trail if you look hard. Looks steep around there. Is that an area that you can fall down easily from?
Also is it possible that he went up to the summit of Iron via the regular trail and upon his return went straight instead of left on the first descent section.
I have read a few trip reports that warn that you can easily go the wrong way if you are not careful at that point. I saw it the few times I have been up there and was aware of it. But can see how anybody could take the wrong way if you aren't really watching. And if it's dark, who knows. I have no idea where that way goes but I suspect that is just keeps getting steeper the further you go.

seadweller · Post by **seadweller** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 8:15 am

I don't see how you fall off a mountain in the abscence of snow .... you get tons and tons of signs that you're approaching a void ... unless you are running or a re drunk or think you are Reinhold Messner, I fail to see how a normal person falls off a mountain ......

Cy Kaicener · Post by **Cy Kaicener** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 8:57 am

He lost the regular trail and got into very steep terrain where you can easily slip. Thats a bad place to be especially in the dark. I wonder why they split up. I think one of the hikers saw the other one fall.

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 10:19 am

They may have split up after the fall. Really scant on details. Googled a couple of times, but nada.

I have a friend on the SM SAR team. Maybe I'll ask him for details.

FIGHT ON · Post by **FIGHT ON** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 3:17 pm

seadweller wrote:I don't see how you fall off a mountain in the abscence of snow .... you get tons and tons of signs that you're approaching a void ... unless you are running or a re drunk or think you are Reinhold Messner, I fail to see how a normal person falls off a mountain ......

Ever been up there? Check it out. It takes a lot of energy to get to the top, if that's where they went, and it's steep almost everywhere after 4 miles into that trail. So if it was their first time up there and they lost their way in the dark, I mean you could be going down and think you are on the trail but you aren't. Maybe they didn't have a headlamp. Imagine being up there lost in the dark w/o water after being spent.

JMunaretto · Post by **JMunaretto** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 6:12 pm

You don't even have to get lost. I remember maybe about half mile to the top where the use trail was so faint, I started veering off to the left side (west) of the ridge to avoid brush, and was able to regain the ridge, but it was so steep that if you tripped or somehow lost footing, you would definitely tumble. And if I remember correctly there wasn't much brush on the slope to slow you down. Falling down that side could drop you far enough to be a mile southwest of Iron.

Edit:

This was a poor picture of that area I believe:

FIGHT ON · Post by **FIGHT ON** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 6:18 pm

DUDE!

Gives me the creeps just thinking about it! SERIOUSLY DUDE!

Cy Kaicener · Post by **Cy Kaicener** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 2:46 am

Search and Rescue have still not released any reports. Sooner or later the rescued hiker will tell us what happened. (hopefully)
Here are some other interesting links about the area
http://www.simpsoncity.com/hiking/heaton.html
Hike Up has a great report on the WSW Ridge

Augie · Post by **Augie** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 2:57 pm

Very unfortunate incident. I too am anxious to get details. If you pay attention going up the Heaton Trail and south ridge it's hard to get lost on the return. However, if it was dark, it's a different story. It might be pretty easy to wander to the ridge on the right (west) as you descend from Iron's summit instead of going straight down the south ridge. Also, it would be hell getting down from Allison Mine in the dark. Going straight down the gulch in the creek requires at least 3 substantial rappels. The other option is the faint use trail on the other side of the gulch; but again, in the dark, even with headlamp, it would be very dicey.

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 3:26 pm

I've written my friend on Sierra Madre SAR an email. I'll post here if he has a chance to reply.

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 7:43 pm

I talked to my friend on Sierra Madre SAR. He didn't want to discuss anything inappropriate, but he indicated that the decendent was located somewhere in the steep terrain up the drainage from the Allison mine between the points marked 6243 and 7504, which I assume means: http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=34.28105,-11 ... tonio%20CA

Not a good place to get off route.

FIGHT ON · Post by **FIGHT ON** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 8:00 pm

He went the wrong way on the way back from the summit. Went right when he should have gone left.

Augie · Post by **Augie** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 4:50 pm

FIGHT ON wrote:He went the wrong way on the way back from the summit. Went right when he should have gone left.

He certainly did. Hard to do unless you're really paying no attention on the way up.

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 5:05 pm

There's been some speculation that they were out late and that darkness was a factor.

Weird thing is, that to wind up on the North side of Allison Gulch, they'd have had to have made their navigational error very close to the top on the way down, an area I'd have thought was less likely make a nav mistake in since the route goes basically south and the ridge above Allison goes much more to the west. There are points on the route lower down where the directional difference between the correct ridge and an off-route ridge is much smaller.

Poor bastard. Tough way to learn a nav lesson.

FIGHT ON · Post by **FIGHT ON** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 8:55 pm

Hikin_Jim wrote:Poor bastard.

2.b.?

1. a person born of unmarried parents; an illegitimate child.
2. Slang.
a. a vicious, despicable, or thoroughly disliked person: Some bastard slashed the tires on my car.
b. a person, esp. a man: The poor bastard broke his leg.
3. something irregular, inferior, spurious, or unusual.
4. bastard culverin.
–adjective
5. illegitimate in birth.
6. spurious; not genuine; false: The architecture was bastard Gothic.
7. of abnormal or irregular shape or size; of unusual make or proportions: bastard quartz; bastard mahogany.
8. having the appearance of; resembling in some degree: a bastard Michelangelo; bastard emeralds.
9. Printing. (of a character) not of the font in which it is used or found.

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 10:53 am

FIGHT ON wrote: 2.b.?

Or not to be. That is the question.

HJ

...in thy orisons be all my sins remembered.
W. Shakespeare, Hamlet

FIGHT ON · Post by **FIGHT ON** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 1:22 pm

ALAN!!!!! HIKIN JIM IS USING YOUR "IS" AGAIN!!!!!!!

JMunaretto · Post by **JMunaretto** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 6:41 pm

Ok I received some info from a friend of these two guys who were up there.

Apparently there was no mistake in route. They meant to go toward the southwest ridge. The reason being that that had found a GPS tracking detailing this route!!!!

Um, can you say this?
http://www.gpsmountaineering.com/ironmo ... hwestridge

They did not know the southwest ridge involved climbing, so I'm assuming they didn't really read the text, just the GPS mapping

Obviously attempting that part at all (let alone in the dark) would not turn out well. It does explain how they could 'miss' the regular trail. Yikes.

FIGHT ON · Post by **FIGHT ON** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 9:16 pm

makes me sick.

Post by **Taco** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 12:01 am

Not to judge someone from the comfort of my chair (especially a deceased person), but doing a route you're unfamiliar with, in terrain like Iron's, in the dark, is a poor decision.

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:58 am

TacoDelRio wrote:Not to judge someone from the comfort of my chair (especially a deceased person), but doing a route you're unfamiliar with, in terrain like Iron's, in the dark, is a poor decision.

That's putting it lightly.

Following a GPS track w/o first checking out the context of that track (who did it, what were they doing, under what conditions, how long, what equipment and skills were required, etc.) isn't the best idea to say the least. Yipes.

I hope it wasn't Travis' track they were following; that would suck. Even if it were Travis' track, it's no reflection on Travis. They had a responsibility to check out the track.

I don't mean to speak ill of the dead. May they rest in peace and may God bring comfort to their families.

Poor guys. Maybe they just didn't know any better? Maybe they had done a few hikes, had their shiny, new GPS in hand, found a track, and off they went.

It's always a hard decision to make an unplanned bivvy, but (yes, I'm just speculating) maybe if they had stopped and said, "this is over our heads. It's going to suck, but let's spend the night out instead of getting ourselves seriously in trouble" they would have been OK in the end. I'm saying this as much for my benefit as anyone else's. I tend to want to press on and hike it out. Sometimes, pressing on is a really really bad idea.

The preceeding all said with admittedly limited knowledge for the purposes of discussion.

AW~ · Post by **AW~** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 1:38 pm

How did we arrive at they were hiking in the dark?

JM, thanks for the info.