Man Killed as Hikers Plunge Down Icy Cliff
One young man was killed and two other people were injured Sunday when a group of hikers fell several hundred feet down the side of a cliff near Crystal Lake in the San Gabriel Mountains north of Azusa, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reported.
The party of eight hikers evidently slipped on an ice “chute” that had been concealed beneath snow in Angeles National Forest, Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedic Richard Weister said.
Seven of the hikers fell about 400 feet, but one man went 600 feet to the bottom of the cliff and was killed, he said.
Combined Rescue Effort
Members of the San Dimas Mountain Search and Rescue Team combined their efforts with sheriff’s and Fire Department helicopter crews to carry the survivors to safety. The two injured hikers--a man suffering from cuts and shock and a woman with a broken leg--were taken by helicopter to Methodist Hospital of Southern California in Arcadia.
Another woman and four men were taken out of the forest by helicopter and truck after treatment for minor injuries.
Other details of the incident were not immediately known.
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