Dangerous Hiker Rescue On Mt. Baldy Caught On Camera

[Wrightwood]

[thehallmarks]

What the he** was she doing on the Devil's Backbone during the existing conditions?  It's dangerous enough during excellent weather?

[Wrightwood]

[Leftfield]

Thank goodness they have coverage for 9-1-1 up there.

[Joe Schmoe]

The entire forest should be wired for cell service as a public safety issue.

[Leftfield]

agreed 

[SkierBob]

 

My dad seems to always find a campground without cell reception.  I pretty sure he plans it that way. 

[vonzip]

The entire forest should be wired for cell service as a public safety issue.

Do you really want a cell tower on every mountaintip?

[Joe Schmoe]

To start I want a cell tower at every property along Highway 2 owned by a public agency with adequate available commercial power.  Then, I want to permit the few private landowners to negotiate for cell towers on their properties if they wish.  And yes, I want some on mountainsides, not necessarily mountaintops.  Next, I want it done creatively - I would want them to be cleverly disguised.  Some disguises are shown in the link below, and I think that reestablishing archways similar to the one formerly at big pines and hiding cell sites in those would also work.  You want kids to come and visit the forest, you have to meet them halfway.  And the speed with which emergency calls for accidents and fires are reported would increase greatly.  Though, disturbingly, my search also shows the towers tend to catch fire...

http://www.google.com/search?biw=1229&bih=619&tbm=isch&q=cell+tower+disguised&spell=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiS_Kf6_MzRAhUH6WMKHZeuAwcQBQgyKAA&dpr=1.56

Before you recoil in horror, I pose the following photograph of what I'm pretty sure was a microwave tower.  There are many such sites throughout the forest.  This one is VERY close to Wrightwood.  I bet 95% of the residents don't know it exists: http://www.google.com/maps/dir/Wrightwood/34.382995,-117.664114/@34.3659747,-117.6678202,4877m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m9!4m8!1m5!1m1!1s0x80c3157bdc23b915:0xac24180e676b6e94!2m2!1d-117.6333884!2d34.3608341!1m0!3e2

[vonzip]

To start I want a cell tower at every property along Highway 2 owned by a public agency with adequate available commercial power.  Then, I want to permit the few private landowners to negotiate for cell towers on their properties if they wish.  And yes, I want some on mountainsides, not necessarily mountaintops.  Next, I want it done creatively - I would want them to be cleverly disguised.  Some disguises are shown in the link below, and I think that reestablishing archways similar to the one formerly at big pines and hiding cell sites in those would also work.  You want kids to come and visit the forest, you have to meet them halfway.  And the speed with which emergency calls for accidents and fires are reported would increase greatly.  Though, disturbingly, my search also shows the towers tend to catch fire...

http://www.google.com/search?biw=1229&bih=619&tbm=isch&q=cell+tower+disguised&spell=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiS_Kf6_MzRAhUH6WMKHZeuAwcQBQgyKAA&dpr=1.56

Before you recoil in horror, I pose the following photograph of what I'm pretty sure was a microwave tower.  There are many such sites throughout the forest.  This one is VERY close to Wrightwood.  I bet 95% of the residents don't know it exists: http://www.google.com/maps/dir/Wrightwood/34.382995,-117.664114/@34.3659747,-117.6678202,4877m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m9!4m8!1m5!1m1!1s0x80c3157bdc23b915:0xac24180e676b6e94!2m2!1d-117.6333884!2d34.3608341!1m0!3e2

[/quoe seriouste]To quote John McEnroe "You can not be serious"

[SkierBob]

 

Seems like there's a trail right out of WW up to that nice little bench someone put there.

[SkierBob]

I don't know if that's leased property or private property but I think that's an American Tower radio relay site.   

I don't believe that tower or the tower to the East is line of sight to WW?

[Joe Schmoe]

The only company name I saw was Pacific Telephone.  The smaller structure looks to be functional, the larger not.  It's not visible to the town, I don't believe, but it's an example of a large communications structure nearby, out of sight.  I may not be an ideal cell site, but that wasn't the point.  There are ugly structures in the vicinity. 

A cleverly disguised cell site is no more of an aesthetic eyesore than some of the public works buildings, other existing communications facilities or run down and abandoned private properties that dot the forest. 

[Tomas]

So the rationale is, because there are ugly structures somewhere, we should add not as ugly structures that are known to catch fire everywhere. We cannot forget the roads to maintain them and walls or fences to protect them. We need them in the most remote areas to protect the few people that might be able to get there, most of whom are knowingly they are putting themselves in danger. With this in mind, we understand that there is no use for wilderness in the world and that people have no need to take responsibility for their actions, help is always a phone call away.

Makes perfect sense to me 

[SkierBob]

Completely agree Tomas. 

However without the cell phone the accident on Baldy probably wouldn't have turned out well. 

Anywhere someone can slide to their death they should be on belay.

The fake pine tree cell towers just remind me how PC everyone has become.

[Jim Wilkins]

That picture sure looks like part of the Comm Site on Blue Ridge at the top of Holiday Hill.  They are pretty much block buildings that handle all kinds of microwave/Phone/TV stuff.   Been there for years and not readily available to see unless you drive or walk Blue Ridge.  Not sure if it's a singular Cell site.

[SkierBob]

Anyone remember years ago when a couple radio techs got trapped in one of the buildings in heavy snow on Blue Ridge?  It was before they put roof hatches on the buildings.  I believe they succumbed from lack of oxygen if I recall correctly.

I don't recall ever seeing a cell site on top of a major peak.  They usually prefer a site that is shadowed from other cell sites, so the calls are handed off between cell sites correctly as you drive you car down the road. 

mixed rain and snow over here on the ridge above Palmdale @4k. 

[SoCalGal]

"The entire forest should be wired for cell service as a public safety issue."  - I would like to see cell coverage on the roadways, in campgrounds and other places where people gather in numbers; other than that, I think a cell phone is just the wrong tool to go venturing into the back country.  Especially to do any climbing, which increases the odds of a mishap.

My hope is that people who go beyond the common areas will get and learn to use a SPOT beacon, or some other satellite-connected emergency beacon.  I think that's a better tool for the task.

I know the world wants cell phones to be all and do all, but they ain't there yet, by a long stretch.  They may never be.

I saw one of those "bison silhouette" cell towers in Colorado, traveling north from Denver.  It looks like an art work, unless you glance sideways just as you pass its nose, and see that it's a flat plate of some kind, with the antenna blades on one side of the plate.  Great stuff. 

Drive north on Carnelian Ave., I think that's Rancho Cucamonga, and turn right onto the 210 Freeway onramp.  There's a gazebo/shade structure looking thing there, appears for all the world to be a building.  But I'm 99 1/2% sure it's a cell tower.  Many are disguised as buildings these days, not just as odd trees.  Although one of my former bosses was literally leaning with his hand on the rough trunk of this giant 'palm tree', and was genuinely surprised when we told him it was a cell tower.  And I bet most people around here have seen what looks like a water tank labeled "Phelan" just north of Phelan Road, as you drive between Victorville and Phelan.  There's another tower that looks like a sign, too.

[Tomas]

The Pinon Hills "water tower" is also a cell tower, as is the giant Quail Valley Middle School sign. Those are all great for populated areas, but it doesn't mean we should add them all over the forest.

[ad astra]

Don't forget about ham radio. Twenty-plus years ago, we participated in two back-to-back rescues, the first at Trail Camp (12,000 ft elevation) on the way to Mt Whitney. A woman coming down the mountain had sprained her ankle. Ham radio to a monitoring friend in Tom's Place got her out by helicopter in a rainstorm. The very next day, we were on the summit, and encountered a man and his wife coming up the east face by rope. He had slipped and fallen against the face, and had broken a couple ribs. In this case, the helicopter ride from the summit likely saved his life, as he was told later that if he had tried to walk out, he most likely would have punctured his lung. Cell phones were not yet common, and at Trail Camp, cell phones would probably be useless (too enclosed and remote an area). On a climb a few years later, though, at the summit, every other person was calling someone on their cell phone. How quickly things change!