Two hikers from Salt Lake City, a 19-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman, spent 36 hours trapped between 30- to 50-foot cliffs in Cascade Gulch before Siskiyou County rescue teams pulled them out on Tuesday. The pair had planned a simple day trip up Mount Shasta, the 14,163-foot peak in northern California, but their descent went sideways when they hit the Avalanche Gulch area at 11,000 feet elevation. It was 10:20 pm on October 12 when they called for help, shivering in temperatures that had plummeted to 14 degrees.
They were unprepared for an overnight stay. No food. No water. Not enough gear for sub-freezing nights at that altitude. The Sheriff's Office advised them to keep moving to maintain body heat. By 2 am, they reached Helen Lake, sitting at 10,400 feet, but their phone batteries died shortly after, severing their only link to the outside world.
Search and rescue operations began the next morning with helicopter support. At 9 am, a crew spotted two hikers waving from below. They were safe. They were not the missing pair. The real search continued on the ground and from the air throughout Tuesday. Around 4 pm, rescuers heard shouts from the bottom of Cascade Gulch. There, wedged between sheer rock faces, the stranded couple was finally located.
This was the third rescue on the Avalanche Gulch route in just one month. Siskiyou County officials are now issuing stark warnings as winter conditions set in. Falling rocks and worsening weather make the route dangerous for unprepared hikers. The department urges anyone planning high-altitude trips to research routes thoroughly and pack for the worst-case scenario. A simple mistake up there can turn deadly fast.