At 1900 hours the Team was called to assist a 53-year-old and a 17-year-old, both male, who were hiking near Garnet Lake and found that the trail conditions were beyond their skill level. The notification was received from a Garnin Inreach satellite device. It was determined that they were equipped to spend the night in place, so the response was postponed until the next morning.

At 0733 hours the next morning (July 21), the Team was called to respond to Minaret Vista. From there, a field team of 5 members traveled to the Agnew Meadows trailhead and began hiking toward the subjects. CHP helicopter H40 was also responding from Fresno, CA. H40 landed at Minaret Vista to offload equipment to increase their load-carrying capability.

Prior to the arrival of the field team at the sujbect’s location, H40 was able to load them on board and fly them to Minaret Vista. In order to expedite the retrieval, H40 left a crew member on site, then returned to collect the crew member before returning to Fresno. The field team was instructed to return to base. The operation terminated at 1155 hours.

CHP H40 overflying the filed team on the way to extract the subjects. Image by J. Lipman

IC: Gillespie Ops Leader: Bush, Haugh, Beck Responders: Lipman, Cucura, Huizingh, Torrence, Baron, Salay, Dickau, Quiring.