Anonymous
Source: Santa Barbara County Search & Rescue (SBCSAR)
[Thursday] evening at 5:45 pm SBCSAR was activated by the Santa Barbara County Emergency Dispatch Center following a 911 call from a group of 6 hikers that had become lost and stuck in the 7 Falls area of Mission Canyon. Team members responded and worked their way to a location above the hikers to set up rappel stations to eventually reach the hikers and provide them with warming supplies.
As it turned out, one of the hikers had ended up in one of the pools of water after trying to traverse across one of the waterfalls and was in need of dry clothes to stave of hypothermia with cold winds gusting to near 40 mph during the rescue operation. As additional team members arrived with more equipment, numerous rope systems were setup to aid in getting the hikers over the many waterfalls and out of the area. Once through the waterfall section, the hikers were taken out in two groups by team members that were waiting at the base of the waterfalls to hike them out. SAR transport vehicles were standing by for the subjects to provide warmth and the subjects were released to their vehicles at the trailhead.
The rescue operation concluded after about 3 hours and team members proceeded to clean up the rescue equipment and get to the creek safely to exit the area. All team members were back at the station by 11:30 pm and vehicles back in response ready status.
SBCSAR is on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and is compromised of all volunteer professional rescuers. The team is run as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and is supported and operated by community donations.
Like my cousin the fireman says..if it weren’t for the idiots of the world, he wouldn’t have a job. Hiking at sunset, 50 degree air temp, swimming across ice cold water… Common, REALLY??
Like my rich nephew tech CEO says, if it weren’t for cynical trolls, site admins would be out of a job.