According to Los Angeles County officials, a man who vanished over the weekend in Wrightwood was found safely on Tuesday.
On Sunday, January 26 at approximately 1:30 p.m., Malachi Garcia, 35, was snowboarding at the Mountain High Resort with pals when he took a wrong route and wound up approximately four miles away from the resort. He wasn’t seen again until Tuesday after this.
They claim that he managed to keep traveling through the heavy snow until he was found just outside the snow line, even though he had been alone for roughly 48 hours and it was freezing outside. Garcia was unable to get in touch with anyone after he vanished since he had forgotten his phone before he reached the trails.
From a helicopter above, deputies located Garcia by following a trail of footprints they saw in the snow. On Tuesday, they posted video of Garcia being lifted into Air Rescue 5 and saved.
“He was pretty emotional,” said Deputy Casey Cheshier of the Special Enforcement Bureau of LASD. “He had spent a considerable amount of time outside. He was simply glad to be discovered, rather exhausted, and really cold. All that counts is that he lived.
All of this occurred during the first significant winter storm to hit Southern California, which left the region covered in more than a foot of fresh snow while he was gone.
“He was only wearing a hooded sweatshirt, snowboard trousers, and boots, so he was clearly not suited for the temperature. “Not enough for that altitude and this weather, but enough to stay a little warm,” Dep. Cheshier stated.
The day before the search for Garcia, they had attempted to send the helicopter to the region, but they were unable to fly further into the area due to the icy conditions. On Monday, deputies also conducted a search using drones.