Here is Ali's other memorial plaque, just a short ways below the Ski Hut, on the left side of the trail. It is about 40 ft. to left, as you near the final switchback stretch below the hut.
Also two close-up pics (zoomed in camera) on two other days, neither of which came out so well.
Ten years have flown too quickly. I met Ali thru the Sierra Club, but did not have a chance to hike with him. He was president of the Calif. Mountaineering Club at that time.
I spoke a tiny bit of Farsi with him, and with even our limited interaction he was friendly and warm, and brimming with enthusiasm for the mountains. Memorable enough for me that five or six years later when I heard the name of the missing hiker, I knew it was him. BeGrims.... May he rest in peace.
Here's part of the LA Times article I saved in '04--it may still be available/archived online:
"Body of Missing Newbury Park Hiker Is Found on Mt. Baldy
*Ali Aminian, an experienced climber, slipped on an icy trail and fell more than 500 feet down a slope, authorities say
By Lance Pugmire and Holly Wolcott, Times Staff Writers
The body of a Newbury Park hiker who had been missing for three days was found Wednesday on Mt. Baldy, where he apparently had slipped on a narrow, icy trail and fallen more than 500 feet down a slope.
Ali Aminian, 51, was an experienced hiker and Sierra Club member who had been president of the California Mountaineering Club in 1998.
"One of the things he said was that if he had to die, he wanted to die climbing in the mountains," said Jilaa Aminian, a 21-year-old sociology major at UCLA and Aminian's oldest child. "I just hope that he didn't suffer."
Aminian was hiking alone Sunday, en route to the 10,064-foot peak of Mt. Baldy, when he encountered what rescuers described as hard, frozen ice conditions. He fell near the 8,990-foot elevation marker on Bear Flats Trail, hitting small pine trees as he plummeted and stopping under a small pine that obscured his body from searchers, a rescue official said.
One of four rescue dogs picked up a scent at sunset Tuesday. About 11:30 a.m. the next day, volunteers from the China Lake Mountain Rescue Group found the body. The terrain was so icy that the rescuers' metal shoe spikes "barely stuck to the slope," said volunteer Tom Roseman. "I'm sure he just slipped and couldn't stop himself until he hit the bottom." Aminian was wearing basic hiking boots, Roseman said.
A Los Angeles County sheriff's helicopter lowered a hoist to recover the body."
stay safe,
see ya out there,
arocknoid
PS Ridgeline, the other hiker missing at that time was Charles Koh, whose body was later found in Goode Canyon.
