Sheriff's Helicopter and Search and Rescue Team Locate Missing Hiker

Los Padres National Forest - October 2nd, 2011

The Santa Barbara Sheriff’s helicopter and members of the Santa Barbara County Search and Rescue Team have combined to find a Ventura man who became separated from his group during a backpacking trip this weekend.

The 25-year old Ventura man and three friends began their backpacking excursion on Wednesday, September 28, 2011, when they set out from the Upper Oso/Paradise Road area north of Santa Barbara.

The group was 12-15 miles into its trip in the Mission Pine Basin area when the man became separated from his friends at mid-day on Friday, September 30, 2011. After Friday night apart, the three remaining members of the group hiked out and called 911 to report the man missing.

The Santa Barbara County Search and Rescue Team and a Sheriff’s helicopter were paged at approximately 5:30pm Saturday, October 1, 2011. Several members of the Search and Rescue Team focused their search on the ground while the Sheriff’s helicopter looked for the missing subject from the air.

At approximately 6:52pm the Sheriff’s helicopter was searching the trail from Upper Oso to Mission Pine Basin when the crew located the missing hiker. Sheriff’s Copter One was able to land, pick up the man, and transport him to the Search and Rescue units at Upper Oso Campground.

The man, who was dehydrated and exhausted, was treated at the scene by a crew from American Medical Response. The Search and Rescue operation was completed at approximately 8:00pm.

Santa Barbara County Search and Rescue is an all volunteer team under the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office.  For more information about the team, go to www.sbcsar.org.

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please contact Drew Sugars, Public Information Officer.

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