3 Stranded Snowboarders Rescued

For the second time in three days, authorities Monday rescued snowboarders who strayed too far from a Wrightwood ski resort and found overnight shelter in the summer campsite restroom.

Two Glendale brothers were reported missing Sunday afternoon and a Canyon Country man Friday afternoon, all while snowboarding on the opposite face of the Mountain High Resort. All three found it impossible to get back up the mountain and were forced to continue down the steep slope, Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials said.

Brothers Michael Dunning, 14, and Andrew Dunning, 12, survived the freezing night by huddling in a restroom at the Cabin Flats campsite, 3,000 feet below where they were last seen. The boys had been dropped off at the resort at 10 a.m. and reported missing about 4 p.m. by their father, who expected to pick them up, authorities said.

The brothers were uninjured despite wearing only light snowboarding gear and enduring temperatures as low as 19 degrees and a wind chill factor of minus 5 degrees, rescuers said.

“If those kids had not sought shelter, it might have been a different outcome,” said Sgt. Vincent Burton of the Los Angeles County sheriff’s station in Palmdale. “There’s a good possibility they might have [died].”

On Saturday, Charles Cetto, 22, was found by a Sheriff’s Department helicopter at the same restroom after he had ventured too far down the mountain and was unable to climb back up.

It was not the first time Cetto had gone out of bounds, Deputy David Miklos said. Several weekends ago, Cetto was kicked out of the Mountain High resort for the same behavior, the deputy said.

Before he was found, Cetto told rescuers he stuffed his jacket with toilet paper to stay warm and ate raisins and snow.

“People have a total disregard for their safety,” said Miklos, who described the resort’s boundaries as well marked. “They have an attitude that something like this couldn’t happen to them.”

In 1998, a 14-year-old snowboarder died of infections after being stranded in the San Gabriel Mountains near Wrightwood during a winter storm.