After 16 hours and 16 miles of steep, jagged trails in the Ventana Wilderness south of Big Sur, the Monterrey County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team delivered an ill 20-year-old hiker to safety on Sunday morning.
The ordeal was of the most arduous of saves for the Search and Rescue Team, which described the extraction as “physically exhausting.” Tumultuous rainfall caused a rising river to strand half a dozen rescuers, Cal Fire and the Urban Search and Rescue Team overnight.
At 8 p.m. Saturday, journeyers notified the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office of a sick 20-year-old hiker who required assistance to hike out of the isolated wilderness that is set between steep, crested mountain ridges in Los Padres National Forest.
Six Monterey County Search and Rescue team members set out and located the hiker near Sykes Hot Springs. The team administered first aid and called for a helicopter, but weather conditions made an air evacuation impossible.
Urban Search and Rescue team members joined in the rescue by foot, and the pair of teams began the trek out of the Ventana Wilderness area carrying the hiker on a gurney. Approaching a river, however, they found the water had risen, effectively stranding them overnight.
The teams of first responders called the U.S. Coast Guard in an attempt to find another helicopter to airlift the hiker. The Coast Guard sent out a helicopter, but their efforts were rebuffed by dangerous weather conditions.
They would have to wait until dawn.
As daylight broke Sunday morning, rain began to pelt the rescuers and the hiker as they departed from their overnight camp. Search and rescue crew members carried the hiker across the river and out of Ventana Wilderness – nearly 16 hours after the search and rescue operation had begun.
The rescuers delivered the hiker to a waiting ambulance and transported them to the hospital. Monterey County Sheriff’s Office did not provide an update on the hiker’s condition as of Tuesday.
