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Hiker search freezing, fruitless
Rescuers hampered by sleet, snow as they scour Mt. Baldy for O.C. man.

By TOM BERG
The Orange County Register
Sunday, January 4, 2004

MT. BALDY – Two abandoned hiking poles and a bit of blood. Then the path went cold. Day three of searching for Charles Koh, 53, of Buena Park ended Saturday as it began.

Eighty searchers braved a night of sleet and snow, followed by a day of ice and 80 mph gusts on snow-capped Mt. Baldy but failed to find the experienced hiker who's been lost since New Year's Day.

"Really, it's unknown, it's all unknown," San Bernardino County sheriff's Sgt. Dennis Shaffer said of Koh's chances of surviving a third, freezing night on the mountain, with temperatures expected to drop to 10 degrees. "If he's out of the search area, walking further out, he still has a chance of surviving."

Some have survived a week in similar conditions, Shaffer said. But other searchers confided that Koh's odds dropped dramatically with Saturday's setting sun as officials called in all 80 searchers, four dogs and two helicopters for the night. They were to resume searching at 6 a.m. today.

Koh, his wife and another couple celebrated New Year's with a brisk hike up what is called the Sierra Club Hut trail, one of four trails up the 10,064-foot mountain. The women stayed at the Sierra Club hut, about halfway up.

"That's the way he went," said Richard Wingate of the Mt. Baldy Volunteer Fire Department, pointing to a stand of frost-covered evergreens leading to a higher ridge sparkling with new snow, 2-feet deep in places.

Koh and his friend stashed their backpacks at about 9,000 feet, then Koh summited alone while his friend waited just above the backpacks. Koh returned and the two men were nearing the backpacks when Koh, who was leading, slipped and tumbled about 100 feet down a ridge, Wingate said.

A hiker who identified himself only as Brian said he passed Koh near the icy summit Thursday. Koh was sitting and resting, Brian said, and complaining about his crampons - spiked boot attachments meant to grip the ice. Apparently, they were low quality and not working well in the hard ice.

After Koh fell, his friend called to him but got no response, Wingate said. The friend returned to the Sierra Club hut, where a cell phone was used to call for help. It was 4:45 p.m.

Rescue workers began arriving immediately and continued pouring in Friday from as far as Marin County. All they could find, however, were Koh's hiking poles, a little blood and his footprints in the snow at about 9,000 feet trailing off into some scrub manzanita brush.

Kris Crawford of Palo Alto and her dog Dakota, a 6-year-old pit bull, spent four hours Saturday near the summit trying to pick up a scent, to no avail.

"It was sheer ice," said Crawford, a seven-year veteran with the California Rescue Dog Association, who was called to Texas last February to help search for the Columbia shuttle astronauts. "We had crampons, ice axes, and I had to have the dog tied to me. Whenever we stopped moving, her feet were freezing to the ground."

Meanwhile, Koh's wife and two teenage children awaited word below, sequestered from the media by pastor Ron Thomas of the Mt. Baldy Village Church.

"We prayed with them," Thomas said. "We prayed for Charles' strength - that the Holy Spirit would guide the searchers and hear his voice, to guide them to Charles."

One of those searchers was Steve Holden, who spent Friday night and most of Saturday in treacherous conditions with nine members of the Ventura County Sheriff's Department's Search and Rescue squad.

Their overnight search started in rain, which turned to sleet, then to a whiteout of snow with strong gusts. It took them five hours to reach the Sierra Club hut, where they changed into dry clothes, then pushed on to the ridge where Koh fell.

"It was so bitter cold," he said. "You'd stop to catch your breath, but you could not stop for more than 30 seconds to a minute at most and you'd start shivering and freeze."

They carried bivouac bags to sleep in, but didn't dare to use them.

"We can't sleep," they said, "or we'll freeze."

That's when Holden would think of Koh, alone in the blizzard with just a parka and some moisture-proof pants. That's when Holden would think to himself: "If you're cold, he must be cold."

He paused, exhausted but ready to go out again, adding: "That's what drives you."

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Volunteer Max Edward of the Marin County Sheriff’s Department rests at the Mt. Baldy Fire Station after searching Saturday for hiker Charles Koh of Buena Park. Dozens of volunteers and dog teams searched the steep terrain of Mt. Baldy and Good Canyon.
CINDY YAMANAKA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Bruce Donaldson, Max Edward and Joe Hanssen, left to right, march down Mt. Baldy after the day-long search.
CINDY YAMANAKA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

MASSIVE EFFORT: Eighty ground searchers and several dog teams searched the steep and icy terrain of Mt. Baldy and Good Canyon for Charles Koh with no success.
CINDY YAMANAKA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

PERSISTENT: Volunteer Steve Holden of Simi Valley spent the night in Mt. Baldy to search for missing hiker Charles Koh. Holden is with the Ventura City Sheriff’s Department.
CINDY YAMANAKA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER