Three Hikers Found

Friday March 25 BAMRU was called to a mutual aid search in Lake County, near Pillsbury Lake. The search subjects were 3 males aged 16-20, who went on a multi-day trek in mountains that received 2-3 feet of new snow.

BAMRU responders arrived at CP throughout Friday night and early Saturday. Responding teams came with 40+ responders from Lake Co SO/SAR, National Forest, Marin, CoCo, BAMRU, Monterey, Tahoe Nordic.

BAMRU involvement started at 6:30 am Saturday and included 1) drafting search assignments, 2) transportation of team in the field, 3) medical, 4) comms relay, and 5) hasty and side-search teams.

Trail conditions varied from dirt/mud to thigh/waist deep of snow. Rain, sleet, snow through out the day with with light to moderate winds. Fully overcast. Air support not possible. Transportation of teams to search assignments proved to be very challenging. Casualties and challenges included broken snowcat, broken truck axle, stuck vehicles. Communications was challenging to non-existent, no cell phone coverage, radio was spotty and required repeaters or human relay. Sat phones were very helpful.

Initial tracks in snow reported about 10:30am. Subsequent clues and redirect of resources led to locating the 3 subjects together in good condition about 12:30pm.

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