Rescuers Find 2 Snowboarders Missing for Nearly 24 Hours

Demonstrating anew the dangers of off-trail snowboarding, park rangers and rescue workers braved snow and rain Sunday to retrieve two snowboarders who had been missing for nearly 24 hours in the storm-racked Angeles National Forest.

Patrick Jenks, 23, and Claudio Maluje, 28, were found in good health in a small canyon a few miles south of the ski resort where they began their snowboarding journey Saturday, authorities said. Maluje’s wife had reported her husband missing early Sunday morning.

Nearly 40 volunteers and rescue workers combed the snow-covered mountains around the Snow Crest ski resort off the Angeles Crest Highway in the heart of the national forest. Tracks in the fresh snow led rescuers to the canyon were the men were found. From there, a helicopter lifted them to safety.

“We realize we could have lost our lives at any time,” Jenks said late Sunday.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said the men did not need hospitalization and were brought Sunday evening to the La Crescenta sheriff’s station for a reunion with their families.

The search came just over a week after rescuers found 14-year-old snowboarder Jeff Thornton wandering in forested canyons near Wrightwood, where he had been missing for six days. Thornton, who was found about 15 miles east of where Jenks and Maluje were located, died unexpectedly Friday.

The two cases are a testament to the increasing popularity of snowboarding--and to the adventure-seeking nature of many boarders.

No longer the province of teenagers, snowboarding is popular with adults too. There’s even a magazine aimed at baby boomer boarders, Snowboard Life. The sport has become so popular worldwide it is now part of the Olympics.

But it is a sport that abounds with the potential for danger, partly because many snowboarders prefer the soft unmarked snow in unpatrolled wooded areas away from well-groomed ski slopes.

“The sport of snowboarding has had a meteoric rise in popularity because of its fun,” said Kevin Delaney, a former world snowboarding champion and co-founder of a chain of snowboarding camps in Aspen and Vail, Colo., and Timberline, Ore.

“If there is a message to snowboarding youth, it is, ‘Use your head,’ ” Delaney said. “There is an element of danger in venturing into areas that are unpatrolled.”

Jenks, a Glendale resident, and Maluje, of North Hollywood, were described by sheriff’s deputies as experienced snowboarders and hikers with good knowledge of the mountain terrain. They left Glendale on Saturday to go snowboarding at Snow Crest, about 35 miles north of La Crescenta.

But Jenks and Maluje left the well-worn ski trails for the unpatrolled wooded area on the east slope of the mountain, officials said.

“Snowboarders like the powder,” said John Steely, president of the Snow Crest ski resort. “They can get in the deep powder in the trees and maneuver really well. People do it every day.”

The area where Jenks and Maluje were last seen is marked with signs warning that the slopes are not patrolled and are prone to avalanches, authorities said.

The two men said Sunday they spent Saturday night in a cave--in which they found dry wood. Using Maluje’s lighter, they built a fire.

On Sunday morning, they began hiking downward.

The weather then cooperated. Storm clouds began to dissipate Sunday afternoon, allowing helicopters to join in the search. Temperatures were relatively warm for the area--36 degrees--and the storm had dropped only about four inches of powder, not enough to obscure the tracks of the missing men.

Just after midday, searchers following the tracks found their abandoned snowboards near a creek in an area called Bear Canyon. A sheriff’s helicopter picked the men up less than an hour later.

Throughout the search, Steely said, rescuers could not help but think of the end to Thornton’s rescue.

“Everybody is talking about it,” he said.

Thornton, a ninth-grader from Brawley, was pronounced dead Friday at Loma Linda University Medical Center after experiencing severe breathing difficulties. He had gone without food and endured winter storms and subfreezing temperatures for six days.

Thornton died a week after rescuers discovered him sitting near a creek about two miles from where he was last seen, the New Mountain High ski area near Wrightwood.

Sheriff’s Lt. Mike Leum, an operations leader for the Montrose Search and Rescue Team, said Sunday evening that neither Jenks nor Maluje would be billed for the cost of the rescue. Residents of Los Angeles County generally are not billed for local rescues, he said.

Sheriff’s officials said, however, they intend to ask the district attorney’s office to decide whether any laws have been broken.

“We’re not criminals,” Jenks said. “We made a bad decision.”