Hiker missing in the San Bernadinos

[Cy Kaicener]

http://cbs2.com/local/hiker.mountains.san.2.624106.html

[Perry]

i think "fog" is an understatement. and what does "dressed warmly" mean? a sweater? sounds like the journalist doesn't know anything about mountains.

[Cy Kaicener]

The Riverside Search and Rescue has joined the search
http://www.rmru.org/missions/2008/2008-001.html

[AlanK]

http://www.glendalenewspress.com/articl ... sing08.txt

Lost hiker taught in Glendale

Dean Christy, who has been missing in the mountains since Friday, worked in the district for 30 years.

By Angela Hokanson

GLENDALE — Glendale educators are keeping their hopes high for retired Glendale teacher Dean Christy, who has been missing in the San Bernardino Mountains after getting lost while hiking Friday afternoon.

Christy, 62, grew up in La Crescenta and worked as a teacher and administrator for the Glendale Unified School District for 30 years, retiring in 2002. His wife, Joan Christy, also worked for the school district.

“There’s lots of people praying for a healthy return,” said Assistant Supt. Alice Petrossian, who worked with Christy at the school district administration office for nearly 10 years during the 1990s. “We just know that he is going to be OK, because he had such a spirit.”

As word circulated over the weekend that the missing hiker’s name was Dean Christy, Glendale educators started calling and e-mailing one another, trying to determine, “Is this our Dean? Can it possibly be our Dean?” said Joanna Junge, director of special projects and intercultural education for the school district, who has known Dean Christy since she was a teenager.

After going for a hike Friday around Green Valley Lake, a resort area north of Running Springs in the San Bernardino Mountains, Christy called the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department at about 4 p.m. to tell them he was lost. The Sheriff’s Department was in phone contact with Christy until 1 a.m. Saturday, but authorities have not been able to reach him since.

“He was out for a hike when the fog rolled in, so he became disoriented,” said Arden Wiltshire, spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Department.

Search-and-rescue teams from throughout San Bernardino County have been looking for Christy using helicopters, snowmobiles and searchers on foot, Wiltshire said. The area — which is above 7,000 feet elevation — received about 2 feet of snow over the weekend.

Better weather Monday allowed the Sheriff’s Department’s helicopter to search from the air.

“Today we have been blessed with clear skies,” Wiltshire said.

On Monday, the Sheriff’s Department requested and received aid from neighboring counties. About 12 searchers were set to continue to scour the area through Monday night, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

Six members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Montrose Search and Rescue Team will join the search today, said Mike Leum, the team’s reserve chief. Leum’s team will have snowshoes and ice axes, looking not only for Christy, but for clues of his presence — like gum wrappers or other trash, he said.

Christy should be able to stay hydrated by eating snow, Leum said, but eating snow lowers one’s core body temperature, making hypothermia a concern.

Christy doesn’t have any food or water with him, but he was warmly dressed and has some survival training, Wiltshire said.

“It’s very probable that he is still alive,” Wiltshire said.

“As time goes by, those odds tend to be diminished.”

Christy was an active outdoorsman who loved to hike and fish, Junge said.

Junge went on her first backpacking trip with Christy and their church youth group in the High Sierra as a teenager, she said.

And while teaching at Edison Elementary School, Christy coordinated a program for at-risk youth, teaching them survival skills and about the outdoors.

Christy and his wife live in North Hollywood but have a home near Green Valley Lake, Junge said.

“He is just the most wonderful and beloved man, and we’re just devastated,” Junge said.

“If anybody could get through this, it would be Dean.”

[Schützenweber]

San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department search and rescue team member Maarten Verwey, right, and others look for missing hiker Dean Christy, Monday, Jan. 7, 2008, in Green Valley Lake, Calif. Rescuers on foot, snowmobiles and in a helicopter searched Monday for Dean Christy near the Green Valley Lake resort community about 75 miles east of Los Angeles.

[Hikin_Jim]

http://www.rimoftheworld.net/columns/gt ... :_infrared

Previous: http://www.rimoftheworld.net/columns/gt ... ory:_teams

This is eerily similar to what happened to my dad in Jan. 2004. Needless to say, I'm watching with a lump in my throat. The Christys are in my prayers.

[Hikin_Jim]

http://www.pe.com/localnews/sbcounty/st ... 116e7.html

[Hikin_Jim]

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stor ... 57a0e.html

http://www.rimoftheworld.net/alerts

[Cy Kaicener]

Here is a link from an hour age that says 90 volunteers are now looking for Dean Christy.
http://www.dailynews.com/ci_7926300
I went hiking on 3800 ft McKinley Mountain above Highland this morning and saw a few helicopters heading over there.

[Cy Kaicener]

Today - Sunday - cars in the search area are closed to regular traffic to facilitate search vehicle traffic
http://www.rimoftheworld.net/columns/ne ... osures_set