A recent Cal State Long Beach (CSULB) graduate fell about 1,500 feet to his death Tuesday morning, while attempting to help a friend slipping on a trail as they hiked up Mount Baldy.
Authorities said Nguyen and two other male friends were hiking in the Devil’s Backbone area of Mount Baldy when he fell down the mountainside in the process of helping his fellow hiker on the trail.
Sheriff’s officials were notified of the incident at about 7:40AM and deployed aviation and ground Search and Rescue personnel. Though the aviation team located Nguyen at about 9:00AM, heavy winds kept them from immediately reaching the body.
“The weather definitely puts restrictions on aviation’s ability to be in an area and get down to a subject like that and that’s exactly what they were facing [Tuesday],” SBSD PIO Jodie Miller said.
Ground teams were able to hike down to the body at about 5:00PM, which was located down a north slope into the Middle Fork trail area, she said.
The place is popular among experienced hikers, Miller added. She described the area as a rough terrain at a high altitude, and with a lot of snow after recent storms.
Nguyen recently graduated from CSULB with a degree in kinesiology and was an employee at the Long Beach-based Maritime Bicycle Courier.
