Helicopter Used To Rescue Quartet From Misadventure Below The Devil’s Backbone

On Memorial Day, May 30, 2016 at approximately 3:00 p.m., two members of the Fontana Sheriff’s Station, Jon Anderson and Jim Landry, were dispatched to Mt. Baldy. They had been summoned there by hikers in the area who had heard the cries for help from Martha and Joshua Banuelos, along with Hugo Orellana and another unidentified individual who had been hiking along the Devil’s Backbone near Mt. Baldy but imprudently left the trail to scale down the south wall of the precipice toward an extremely steep and unstable cliff. After climbing down approximately 150 yards, three of the four became stuck on a cliff due to the terrain, and were unable to move.
Anderson and Landry located the stranded four on the cliff at the approximately 8,700 foot level. Martha Banuelos was stuck with her back against the cliff, unable to move. Sheriff’s Air Rescue 306, with a crew of pilot deputy Ryan Conner, crew chief sergeant Daniel Futscher, SBCFD captain Jack Dejong, SBCFD medic Mike Demoff and air medic Jerry Modlin, responded to the location.
Conner brought the helicopter into a hover approximately 200 feet above Martha Banuelos and his crew used a pick-off hoist to pluck her and her three trapped companions to safety.

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