FRAZIER PARK, Calif. (Sunday, Apr. 6 at 11:59 p.m. Updated Monday, Apr. 7 at 8:30 a.m.)—A Bakersfield mother and her 11-year-old daughter were found safe after being lost on Mt. Pinos for 12 hours on Sunday.

Priti Patel, 42 and her daughter Anjati became separated from a group of 26 hikers just after 11 a.m. Family and friends searched for them for 90 minutes before calling 911, according to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department Search and Rescue Coordinator Sgt. Frank Underlin, who spoke with the The Mountain Enterprise at the command center established at the Nordic Base just below the Mt. Pinos summit. During the interview, at 10:10 p.m. the radio call came in from two miles up the trail, on the north side of the summit: "The victims have been located. They’re all OK."

Patel and her daughter, suffering from exposure to the elements, were hoisted into a hovering Ventura County Sheriff’s Department "Copter 8" and airlifted to the Lockwood Valley sheriff’s substation after 11 p.m., where they were transferred to an American Medical Response ambulance and transported to Henry Mayo Hospital in Santa Clarita, according to Sr. Deputy Ryan Clark of the sheriff’s substation in Lockwood Valley.

Kern County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue teams from Bakersfield and the Mountain Communities, two Kern County Sheriff’s helicopters and the U.S. Forest Service assisted in the search operations.

Reported by Gary Meyer and Katy Penland.

This is part of the April 03, 2009 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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