Montrose Search and Rescue – Saving Nearly 600 People Trapped on Mt. Wilson

It was a gorgeous Easter Sunday in April 1965. Snow covered the San Gabriel Mountains but the springtime sun pushed the temps into the 70s. Scores of motorists made the drive up Angeles Crest Highway, turning onto the narrow twisting road that skirts the sheer mountainside to Mt. Wilson. Each car picked its way around a few rocks that had fallen onto the pavement, loosened by the quickly melting snow, but no one thought much of it.

After a few hours at the summit, cars began to descend the steep roadway. At 2:30 p.m., a group of about 25 cars approached the area where a few rocks had fallen earlier, a couple of miles above Angeles Crest Highway. A witness described what happened next: “I saw the first big boulder hit the roadway and bounce into the canyon. Then it looked like the whole mountain was coming down.” A car in the lead was hit by a huge rock that landed on its hood, stalling the car. The occupants got out and pushed the car forward as more rocks came down behind it. A passenger in one of the following cars said, “It started with a rumble. Then it sounded like an explosion!”

Tons of mud, snow and debris slid onto the roadway and spilled down into the canyon. Boulders as big as cars were mixed in. The road was completely blocked for 100 feet or more. Trapped behind the slide were approximately 100 cars, and nearly 600 people. Amazingly no one had been injured.

Sheriffs and the Montrose Search and Rescue team responded and gave the trapped crowd some tough alternatives. They could wait in their cars for however many hours it took to clear the road, or they could abandon their cars and pick their way across the landslide escorted by the MSR members. All but a handful chose the latter.

Walking across the unstable landslide proved too risky and a few rocks were still falling. But the rock wall guardrail at the edge of the road was still intact. The top of the rock wall was cleared of debris and the MSR strung a guide rope three feet above the wall. The trick now was going to be helping nearly 600 people walk what amounted to a 100-foot long tightrope. Imagine walking on the one-foot-wide rough surfaced rock wall with just a single rope to hang onto.

It was now dark. On one side was a shifting pile of boulders you just watched crash down, and on the other a straight drop of 500 feet or more into blackness.

Ten deputies walked the wall first to show the crowd how to do it, and the people waiting behind gingerly stepped up onto the wall to follow. One said later, “Most of the people were calm, but some were panicky. One woman said she almost fainted.”

MSR members and deputies walked with the more fearful. “Don’t look down” they told the walkers over and over. One woman said she couldn’t help looking. “The walkway was so narrow. I would have fallen, but a deputy grabbed me.” Children had to be carried, leaving the carrier off-balance and without hands to hold the guide rope.

After several hours, the entire crowd had been brought across the landslide, where several warm sheriff department busses waited. As soon as everyone was across, road crews set up floodlights and began clearing the slide. Nine busloads of the trapped motorists were brought down Angeles Crest Highway to La Crescenta. On duty at the American Legion Hall to receive them was the Crescenta-Cañada Emergency Corps (the equivalent of today’s CERT team – we’ve always been a community of volunteers). They’d set up a phone bank, food and hot coffee, and had rallied taxis to take the weary home.

It had been a thrilling and amazing night for both the rescuers and the rescueds. One tired mom said, “It was our first trip here and our last!” Not completely accurate. Unfortunately, she’d have to return to Mt. Wilson one more time to get her car.

  mike lawler