EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. – With almost 64,000 acres, Desolation Wilderness is a large recreation area straddling the Eldorado National Forest and the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit on the west side of Lake Tahoe.
On October 1, a hiker found himself stuck off-trail on the side of a sheer granite face above Angora Lakes. He was in a crack with only a small, flat area to stand on and was unable to move up or down. The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue (SAR) Team first had to find the hiker, much like finding a needle in a haystack. Once they located him from their helicopter, SAR had to rappel out of a helicopter to get to him, and then safely hoist him up.
In the photos above from the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office, try to find the stranded hiker in the first photo. He is circled in the second photo.