It's easy to die there: Icy Mt. Baldy claims three lives as hikers warn of extreme danger

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Officials have identified one of the three hikers found dead on Mt.Baldy this week as 19-year-old Marcus Muench Casanova of Seal Beach.Casanova fell 500 feet on Monday while hiking Devil’s Backbone, a sharp ridge with steep drops on either side, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

Two other hikers were then spotted on the mountainside by a helicopter sent to rescue Casanova, but crews were unable to conduct the operation due to high winds, officials said.An airship later lowered a medic, who found that all three men had died.

A sheriff’s air rescue team recovered the bodies at about 2 p.m.the following afternoon.The identities of the two other men have not been released.

Investigators said they were not hiking with Casanova, and it’s unclear when they died, how long they were on the mountain or whether they were reported missing prior to the discovery.Casanova was a part-time seasonal employee with the Long Beach Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine and had worked as a sailing instructor at the Leeway Sailing and Aquatics Center since 2023, the city said in a statement.“Marcus had a rare gift of connecting with everyone he met, making summers and weekends brighter for sailing program participants and his fellow colleagues,” the statement said.The hikers’ deaths have reverberated through the Southern California hiking community, where outdoors enthusiasts found themselves explaining, in online forums and to reporters in phone interviews, the dual nature of conditions on Mt.Baldy as observers speculate about what could have happened to each of the hikers.

Officials have not provided any details on what they think caused Casanova to fall or how the other two bodies ended up in the area.California Mt.

Baldy towers over Southern California, beautifully decked with snow.Easy access helps make it one of the three deadliest peaks in the U...