In January 1988, two different Boy Scout troops were getting experience in cold-weather camping in the San Gabriel Mountains when an unexpectedly powerful storm blew in, dropping a heavy covering of snow. Troop 108 from Culver City had parked their cars on a turnout of Angeles Crest Highway and then hiked about a mile down to Buckhorn Campground to camp the night. When they awoke in the morning to the raging storm, the three adult Scout leaders and 11 Scouts, ages 11 to 15, broke camp and slowly made their way back to their cars. The winds were gusting at 40 mph and snowdrifts were as high as four feet. When they did reach the cars, there was no way the cars would be able to move, so they sheltered inside them for several hours. A group of recreational 4WD vehicles came upon them and gave them a lift to Newcomb’s Ranch.

Higher up the ’Crest another Scout troop from Palos Verdes had spent the night at Little Jimmy Campground. After a sleepless night in their tents listening to the raging storm, the four adult leaders and 21 Scouts broke camp and waded three miles through deep snow to their pre-arranged pick-up point at Islip Saddle. The bus to pick them up had gotten no farther than Chilao and from there the driver had telephoned for assistance from the Montrose Search and Rescue team.

MSR responded, setting up at Newcomb’s Ranch with vans to take the Scouts out once they were found. Two patrol teams were sent in vehicles up the unplowed snow-bound highway. One team paused just past the tunnels on the way to Islip Saddle, while the other team went farther up on foot. The two members of the team by the tunnel noticed an odd lump in the snow and, when they got closer, they could see it was a car, completely covered in a drift.

The two MSR members dug the snow away from the doors, and peering through the car’s windows could see three people inside, appearing to be asleep. Not able to get a response from the car’s occupants, the rescuers broke the windows of the car and reached inside. The three people inside were cold and stiff.

Just at this point, the Scout troop found by rescuers a few hundred yards up the road at Islip came trudging up to the scene. The MSR members hurriedly covered the car so the kids wouldn’t witness the grisly discovery. After the Scouts had been escorted by the team and ferried down to Newcomb’s for the trip home, the team dove into recovering the bodies from the car. The three bodies were two young men, 18 and 24 years old, and a 17-year-old girl. They appeared peaceful, just sleeping, which is a common appearance with carbon monoxide poisoning. The car’s ignition was on, and the heater was all the way on, but the gas tank was empty, indicating they had been there for many hours, perhaps even since the day before. It also appeared that the car’s front wheels were stuck in the ditch at the side of the road. It was surmised that a simple drive to the snow had turned deadly when, perhaps in turning around, the car became stuck. The group had apparently decided to sleep in the idling car overnight with the heater on. When snow covered the car’s exhaust during the night, the heater blower probably funneled the exhaust into the car’s interior, and the group died in their sleep.

It was noted that, at the time of the discovery, the car was almost completely covered by snow and it was still snowing. Even after snowplowing the road, the car in the ditch may not have been found for several days. The coroner couldn’t make it to the snowbound location, so the MSR team reluctantly extracted the bodies and loaded them into the back of their rescue truck for the long ride down the hill to Verdugo Hills Hospital. A successful Scout rescue had brought about a sad discovery.

Mike Lawler is the former 

president of the Historical Society

of the Crescenta Valley and loves local history. Reach him at lawlerdad@yahoo.com.