Montrose Search and Rescue members got the call around 8:30 p.m. Sunday. Three adults and five children, 11 to 13 years old, had set up a camp between two rivers in the canyon. When it started raining, the rivers started rising, making them uncrossable for the campers.
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"The water was about waist-deep for an adult at that time, which for a smaller child would be neck-deep," said Steve Goldsworthy, operations leader for Montrose Search and Rescue.
The team's first choice: a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department helicopter rescue, but that chopper ran into too many obstacles.
"There was a set of wires directly above where their encampment was, very thick brush," Goldsworthy said. "And it started to mist. With night vision goggles, that mist just becomes a wall."
The team then sent two members to rappel down a 700-foot cliff in the darkness, but getting the stranded campers back up the cliff wasn't a safe option, so the search and rescue team literally turned the water off.
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"We had the dam keeper basically close the valves out of the Big Tujunga Dam, so the water was slowly receding," explained Goldsworthy.
After a few hours, that brought the river levels down to a safe depth and the team members were able to bring the campers across using a safety line.
Nobody was injured in the rescue, but Goldworthy said it took six and a half hours, 11 rescue team members and other valuable resources for something that could have been easily avoided.
"Check the weather. I wouldn't encourage anyone to go out when we have storms forecasted like this," Goldsworthy said. "Stay home, stay warm."