Rescue Near Baldy, Below Sugarloaf Peak

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West Valley SAR received a call early Monday morning for two hikers who had become stuck after an unsuccessful retreat from Sugarloaf Peak. The hikers were located in a drainage about 1200' below the peak, exhausted, and unable to proceed safely. With the help of Sheriff's Aviation the hikers were located, and a team of 3 made their way to the hikers' location. The climb to the hikers was a steep talus slope common to the area, but the true difficulty was the heavy "buck brush" in a 200' swath between drainages. The first team on scene took approximately 2 hours to traverse this patch of brush. Team 2, comprised of members of the Cave & Technical Rescue Team and the Mountain SAR Team scouted a route at first light. It was determined that this team could avoid much of the brush if they climbed to a band of rocks approximately 200' above the stranded hikers, then dropped into the drainage. As it turned out, this was the easier route. After approximately 2 hours of climbing, Team 2 reached the hikers and the two teams began to assess evacuation options.

Not long after Team 2 arrived, the command post was notified that 40-K was inbound to assess a possible helicopter extraction. The slope was rather steep, but the air crew was able to load all passengers via a hover step. 3 trips were required to get everybody back to Cow Canyon Saddle. The hikers were tired, but relatively unharmed.