Searchers Find Body of Second Mt. Baldy Skier Buried in Snow

The body of a second skier, who with another man was the object of an extensive search in February by rescuers, has been found under 10 feet of snow in the Mt. Baldy area.

The body of Tim Pines, 31, of Dana Point was discovered Saturday on the Coldwater Canyon side of the mountain, his wife, Becky, said Monday. It was about 150 feet from where the body of his skiing companion, Charles Prior, 33, of San Clemente, had been found May 3, she said.

Prior, a professional pilot, and Pines, an executive for Mazda in Irvine, were reported missing Feb. 11 when they did not return home from a skiing trip. The two men became friends through a weekly Bible study class at San Clemente Presbyterian Church.

Becky Pines said the search for her husband intensified recently because some of his ski gear had been found earlier in the week with the help of a dog team. She went to the Mt. Baldy area early Saturday--her birthday--with a group of friends who had searched intermittently since February.

The searchers rode the ski lift up the mountain to “the notch,” a site at the end of the lift, and hiked up the mountain, she said. On the back side of the skiing area, the searchers probed the snow and found the body.

Memorial services for Pines will be held Friday at San Clemente Presbyterian Church in San Clemente. Services for Prior will be held Sunday at the same church.

Pines said she was relieved at the discovery of her husband’s body after three months, but that it forced her to relive his loss.

“It feels rotten. It just opens it up all again,” said Pines, a volleyball coach at Southern California College in Costa Mesa. “Not that it had gotten easy, but it was such a long wait.”