Last Sunday, Riley Ramirez and Cole White were dropped off for what was supposed to be a 10-day hike through part of the Pacific Crest Trail. The 17-year-old boys were experienced hikers, but were ill-prepared for the late February snowstorm about to slam into the Southern California mountains, burying some areas in up to seven feet of snow.
“They knew there was weather. But I don’t think they expected the amount,” San Bernardino County sheriff ’s Sgt. John Scalise told the Associated Press.
The boys’ family lost contact with them a few days into the hike, and Ramirez’s alarmed father alerted the sheriff’s department, Scalise said. A search and rescue operation was launched, with a helicopter crew eventually spotting the pair along a remote section of the trail near San Gorgonio Mountain, the highest peak in Southern California.