Team rescues 9 people stuck in the snow overnight in Mendocino National Forest mountains
The Glenn County Search and Rescue Team last weekend found and rescued nine people who had been stranded overnight in the mountains of Mendocino National Forest after their vehicles got stuck in the snow.
The team was called Saturday morning to rescue the group of people stranded near Plaskett Meadows, according to a Facebook post from the Search and Rescue Team. The team retrieved its snow rescue equipment, including off-road tracked and side-by-side vehicles, and headed to the area.
They towed the tracked vehicles to where the pavement ended and the snow began, then continued in Jeeps and side-by-side vehicles.
At the junction of Company Road and Forest Highway 7, the rescue team spotted several sets of shoeprints in the fresh snow, coming from the direction where the vehicles were reportedly stuck. The two side-by-side vehicles followed the shoeprints, while the Jeeps continued to head toward the stuck vehicles.
The rescuers in the side-by-side vehicles found three people from the stranded group about 10 miles from the stuck vehicles, which the rescuers in the Jeeps found about a half mile past Plaskett Meadows, officials said.
One of the stuck vehicles was found nearly falling off the road, according to the rescue team. The stranded people found walking were given a ride in the side-by-side vehicles, so they could rejoin the rest of their group.
The stranded people, which were first in one vehicle, said they got stuck in the snow about 2 p.m. Friday. They had no food or water with them. They called someone they knew to help them get out. Officials said that second vehicle arrived and quickly got stuck, too.
They had also called someone in a third vehicle to help them, who arrived and also got stuck in the snow, according to the rescue team.
The rescue team spent several hours pulling the stuck vehicles out of the snow and getting the stranded group to safe ground. This was the team’s third snow rescue in a week, and officials said Saturday’s rescue was “by far the most lengthy and strenuous.”
“We hope by posting this incident that it reminds everyone that winter mountain travel can be extremely dangerous, even to large 4-wheel-drive vehicles,” officials said in the Facebook post. “We also want to press the importance of staying together and at the area you are stuck at once emergency personnel have been notified.”
