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Search crews recount dramatic rescue of Orange County hiker in the forest (Map)
Photos of Nicholas Cendoya, 19, (left) and Kyndall Jack, 18, of Costa Mesa, who were rescued from the Cleveland National Forest in Orange County after four-day search.
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Courtesy Orange County Sheriff's Department
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After four days of grueling searching, rescuers suddenly heard a faint female voice calling for help. They spent the next 90 minutes penetrating rugged wilderness to reach a near-vertical slope where lost hiker Kyndall Jack was clinging to a rocky outcropping in the Cleveland National Forest in Orange County.
LA County Reserve Deputy Fred Wenzel reached her first. He said she had no shoes, was having trouble breathing and was severely disoriented from dehydration. First she asked what year it was, then she asked for her mother.
Deputy Jim Moss, a paramedic who was dropped to her by helicopter and airlifted her to safety, said the 18-year-old "was limp and almost lifeless."
RELATED: UPDATE: 2nd missing hiker found alive, searcher in intensive care after 60-foot fall (MAP)
Jack's dramatic rescue ends a saga that started on Easter, when Jack and her friend Nick Cendoya called 911 to report that they were lost.
Many details of the pair's ordeal remained a mystery and officials hoped to question them more closely once they were rested and more stable. Both are expected to be hospitalized for several days.
Map: The Trabuco District of the Cleveland National Forest is east of Rancho Santa Margarita in Orange County. The staging location at the Trabuco Canyon Station is indicated with a flag. There are several trails and two waterfalls in this area of the Cleveland National Forest - Holy Jim Falls and Falls Canyon.
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Source: KPCC, OCTrailhikers.com
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