GRANADA HILLS : Copter Saves 2 Boys Trapped by Rattlesnakes

Brian Rushton and John Norris had an excellent adventure right above their own back yard Thursday when the teen-agers were airlifted to safety after being trapped on a hillside by two diamondback rattlesnakes, authorities said.

The 13-year-olds climbed up a hillside above their homes on Mission Tierra Way.

“Me and Brian go up there a lot,” John said. “We go up and hang out at a big rock.”

Shortly before noon, the youths heard the sound of a car crash and bounded down the hillside to get a good look at the accident on Balboa Avenue, authorities said.

Just as they got bored with watching the firefighters work and decided to head back home, they heard a rattle about 5 feet in front of them, John said.

“I just don’t like snakes,” Brian said. “I never have and I never will.”

John, shaken by the sound, fled down the hill until a 6-foot-deep drainage ditch blocked his way.

He grabbed a branch above the culvert and hung there while Brian tried to pull him back.

Brian couldn’t reach his friend, so he advised him to drop into the culvert and follow it uphill where they could meet and find another way down.

As Brian climbed back up the hill, he ran into a second snake, and at that point both boys became too frightened to go on.

“It was too steep to get down, and our path was blocked by snakes,” John said.

John then began waving his arms at the firefighters below, who heard him calling for help and ran halfway up the hill to speak with him.

Firefighters dispatched an air rescue helicopter that arrived about 45 minutes later and carried the boys off the hillside to a soccer field on Balboa Avenue.

“It was exciting at the end when we knew we were going to be OK, but the time between when we heard snakes and heard the helicopter, well, I don’t want to get into that,” Brian said. “We were shaking and stuff.”

Dan Norris, John’s father, said the boys are usually allowed up on the hillside during the months when snakes hibernate, and he didn’t expect the reptiles to return so early in the year.

He also said this is definitely the last time the young hikers will be up there this year.