Keck Graduate Institute student Nate Freund was found yesterday after becoming lost on a hike near Mount Baldy.
Daily Bulletin reporter Lori Consalvo covered the story. According to the article, once Freund realized he was lost, he sent a text message to his sister and also used a personal locator beacon to give out his exact location using GPS.
Freund hunkered down in a tent and a sleeping bag, and rescuers found him yesterday afternoon. Bad weather hampered the search for a time. Consalvo's article says:
On Tuesday morning, a relief team set out for Freund's exact coordinates about 9 a.m. and had a visual on him about five hours later.
"This was sweet," said Susan McCreary, a member of the Sierra Madre Search and Rescue Team. "He had the GPS and the PLB, and we could just go find him."
She said the technology that Freund had with him is fairly recent, with less than 1 percent of day hikers owning them.
Once they found him, the 14 to 16 search-and-rescue volunteers walked with Freund - who was cold and hungry but healthy - down the mountain, where he was greeted by his smiling mother and father.
According to the article, the PLB was a recent Christmas gift to Freund from his parents. The Bulletin also has video of the rescue.
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