For 35 years, Gil Estrada has bore witness to the perils of Mt. San Antonio, the 10,064-foot peak known by most as Mt. Baldy that divides Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.
The danger, according to Estrada, plays out mostly during the peak winter months, when heavy snow and ice in the San Gabriel Mountains make tackling Mt. Baldy more of a mountaineering expedition than a leisurely hike. The dangerous conditions can spell disaster for novice hikers who become lost, injured or die on the mountain, keeping search-and-rescue teams busy throughout the season.
“I can almost mark my calendar; beginning every January there’s going to be at least one death. I’ve seen a lot of this. You become accustomed to it,” said Estrada, 62, who has worked ski patrol for decades and serves as chairman of the San Antonio Ski Hut. “You fall, you start sliding, and you hit a tree or you hit a rock, and it can be over quite quickly.”
The vicinity surrounding the Ski Hut is where most hikers get lost, injured or die, Estrada said. Owned by the Sierra Club, the Ski Hut is nestled about two miles below the Mt. Baldy summit along the Baldy Bowl Trail. It serves as a pit stop for hikers and skiers needing to refuel, map out their next destination or just enjoy the majestic views.
In the past 14 months, three people have died hiking the Baldy Bowl Trail. San Bernardino County search-and-rescue teams have conducted 20 missions in the area, prompting a word of caution to inexperienced hikers to stay clear of Mt. Baldy during the peak winter months.
“Unfortunately, Baldy claims two or three lives a year, and that’s where we’re at. It’s pretty steady,” said Eric Vetere, commander of the sheriff’s West Valley Search and Rescue Team.
Death toll
On Feb. 4, Ada “Lifei” Huang, 22, of El Monte set off at about 2 p.m. to hike the Baldy Bowl Trail. She was documenting her hike on social media and posted a video showing the snow-blanketed trail she was on as she hummed a song. After not being heard from since 4 p.m. and not returning home, Huang was reported missing at 11:14 p.m. that night.
Nearly a week later, about 3:25 p.m. on Feb. 10, a citizen flying a drone located Huang’s body near the upper San Antonio Creek Falls area, but search-and-rescue team members were unable to hike to the location due to inclement weather. High winds also thwarted an aerial search.
The following morning, sheriff’s Air Rescue medics hoisted Huang’s body out of the area, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
About a year earlier, two hikers fell victim to Mt. Baldy despite their considerable climbing experience.
On Jan. 8, 2023, Crystal Paula Gonzalez-Landas, 57, of Covina died after falling and sliding 500 to 700 feet down the icy Baldy Bowl, about halfway between the Ski Hut and the summit. Bystanders told rescuers that Landas was struck by ice rolling down the mountain, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
Landas, who had crested Mt. Whitney before and was known by many as the “dancing hiking queen” or “hiker for life,” had been documenting her Mt. Baldy hike on social media. On the day of her death, she posted a video of herself, wearing a headlamp in the predawn dark, setting off on her adventure.
“Wooo! It’s snow time! Lots of people out today,” a panting Landas said as Pat Benatar’s “Love Is A Battlefield” played loudly.
Two days prior to her death, Landas posted a couple of videos documenting the dangerous conditions on the mountain and how she had to turn back from an attempt to crest the summit that day. One of the videos showed slushy snow slowly moving down the mountain, like a lava flow.
“This stuff has no traction. We have to shuffle our feet across,” Landas said in the video. “This is the stuff I dealt with on the Bowl and just decided to turn around.”
About the same time, on Jan. 13, 2023, British actor Julian Sands, 65, an experienced mountaineer and outdoorsman, left home about 5:30 a.m. to hike Baldy Bowl and was expected to return that afternoon. When he didn’t come home, his wife filed a missing person report.
In the six months that followed, the West Valley Search and Rescue Team conducted eight missions looking for Sands, at one time having to suspend the search due to severe weather and fierce winter storms that pummeled the Southern California mountain region.
And then on June 24, 2023 — the day after Sands’ family released its first public statement expressing gratitude to the search teams and coordinators — a group of hikers discovered Sands’ skeletal remains in Goodman Canyon, west of the Ski Hut and along the trail leading to the summit.
Among Sands’ remains, the hikers discovered his wallet and identification, clothing, backpack, a headlamp, hiking boots and red traction cleat boot attachments, according to a coroner’s investigation report. Sands’ cause of death could not be determined due to the condition of his remains.
Estrada said that the deaths of Landas and Sands reveal a truism about the dangers of mountain hiking: No matter the skill-set of the hiker, the more often he or she is exposed to treacherous conditions, the more likely something bad can happen.
“The more often you go, the greater chance of you getting injured occurs, because you’re out there more than anyone. I’ve been hurt plenty of times,” said Estrada, a Claremont resident.
Unceasing rescues
In February, no less than 10 hikers who became stranded on Mt. Baldy were rescued by San Bernardino and Los Angeles county search-and-rescue teams.
On Feb. 14, San Bernardino County sheriff’s Air Rescue members hoisted six hikers from the mountain after they became stranded near the summit on Bear Canyon Trail. On Feb. 11, the day Huang’s body was hoisted off the mountain, 46-year-old Luis Diaz of North Hills was hoisted off the mountain to safety after becoming stranded in powdery snow and ice in the Baldy Bowl, on steep terrain while attempting to hike to the summit.
And on Feb. 5, members of the Los Angeles County sheriff’s San Dimas and Sierra Madre search-and-rescue teams hiked four miles up the mountain to rescue three hikers who became lost and stranded on the Bear Canyon Trail, at the 8,400-foot level.
“The trails can be challenging and hard to find if they’re buried in snow. You can easily get turned around,” Vetere said.
Baldy’s lure
While Mount Baldy’s terrain is not much different than that of other popular Southern California mountain hiking destinations like Big Bear and Mount San Gorgonio, it tends to draw a lot of people due to its proximity to Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties and easy accessibility from the 210 and 10 freeways.
And that, experts say, factors into an influx of inexperienced hikers who flock to the area during the winter months and face the perils of the mountain due to heavy snow and ice. Many get lost and need rescuing, and some die.
“It’s in your backyard. It’s 35 minutes from the freeway. They read about it on Instagram, on Facebook, and they see it from their backyard and think, ‘I can do this,’ ” Estrada said. “And what happens is people come unprepared. And when they do come with the proper equipment, many of them don’t know how to use it, much less carry it.”
To prove his point, Estrada offers up a photo he took of a man hiking Baldy Bowl with an ice ax loosely slung over his shoulder and hanging diagonally across his back. The proper way to carry an ice ax, Estrada said, is with it affixed securely, shaft vertical, through a backpack gear loop.
Estrada’s sentiments are echoed by other experts who caution that Baldy is no place for novice hikers during peak winter months.
“In the wintertime, with all that snow and ice, those steep slopes become more of a mountaineering exercise,” said Cris Hazzard, a professional hiking guide from Newport Beach whose website, hikingguy.com provides safety tips for hikers, gear suggestions and links to popular hiking trails nationwide.
“If you see people who have experience going to Mt. Baldy, they have crampons and ice axes and helmets. It’s a lot more intense,” Hazzard said. “I think Baldy gets a lot of trouble because it’s very easily accessible.”
Additionally, Estrada warned, hikers shouldn’t rely on technology to save them from potentially deadly situations.
GPS tracking systems built into mobile phones and Garmin inReach devices have proved beneficial in search-and-rescue operations, but Estrada said hikers should not become dependent on them. His concern is hikers throwing caution to the wind.
“It’s kind of their get-out-of-jail-free card. I think they give people a false sense of safety,” he said.
Safety first
When hiking in snowy winter weather in the mountains, especially on Baldy, the time of day one begins a hike also factors heavily into safety.
Vetere said more experienced hikers tend to be on the mountain in the early morning hours, usually between 4 and 5 a.m., during the winter months, before the weather starts warming and the snow and ice begins to melt, which creates potentially hazardous conditions.
“There’s a higher potential for avalanche due to warmer weather and snowmelt,” Vetere said. “Snow and ice build up in trees, some get to be the size of bowling balls, and then they start coming down. And if you’re underneath it, you’re at risk of it hitting you.”
Estrada has a name for those large, falling chunks of ice.
“I call them death cookies,” he said. “It looks beautiful on trees, but when temperatures warm it starts to fall and litters the ground with big balls of ice.”
Experts stress that fatalities can be avoided on Mt. Baldy through proper training and knowing the terrain. Many places, including REI, offer training courses, Hazzard said.
“It’s a landscape that can change depending on the elements that are very dynamic and very changeable,” he said. “It’s something that’s learned by experience and learning from others. You really need to learn to read the landscape.”