Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Rescue on Mt. Baldy 6-21-08

Hi All,
This may be a little off topic but I know there are more than a few Mt. Baldy fans on this board.
A 58 year old hiker, Joe Dare of Bellflower, suffered a heart attack while hiking the Ski Hut trail on Mt. Baldy. He lost consciousness and fell approximately 50 feet into the stream bed below the trail. This happened right in front of the Sierra Club Ski Hut and several of the members inside the hut, as well as other hikers nearby, responded to the victim, helping stabilize him until he was airlifted out. I don't know the current condition of Mr. Dare but I hope he is doing well and can recover completely. I do know that everyone involved tried to give this the best outcome possible, especially the San Bernardino Sheriff Rescue team, who did a professional and efficient rescue of Mr. Dare. Hats off to SAR teams everywhere who risk their lives to save the lives of injured hikers and climbers who otherwise wouldn't stand a chance.




Some pictures here: http://markirving.smugmug.com/gallery/5224299_Gv65R#317254228_6EGVn

Mark -- thanks for posting the report and pictures of the SAR activity yesterday. I came down the Ski Hut Trail yesterday at about 11:15. At that point, help had been summoned and the victim had been tended to, so I headed down in order to keep the crowd to a minimum. The helicopter showed up when I was about halfway down to Manker. There was quite an array of emergency vehicles at the Falls. I also hope that Mr. Dare is ok.

I posted a TR and pictures on the San Gabriel Mountains board. My pictures were mostly of the burned area above Bear Flat.

Good news,
Apparently Mr. Dare is going to be in the hospital for a few days and is doing well. He sustained no broken bones but he did have a blood clot that caused the heart attack. Heres hoping he has a speedy recovery and gets back to normal soon!!!

We were in Icehouse Canyon, coming back from Cucamonga, when we could hear the constant drone of the helicopter. So glad to hear that he is going to be ok. Scary stuff.