Injured hiker airlifted from Mt. Shasta after serious fall near ice sheet

A hiker seriously injured after a fall had to be rescued off one of California's highest peaks over the weekend.

The Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office says, on Aug. 16, they got a 911 call from a hiker at Mt. Shasta reporting that his climbing partner was missing. The pair had summited the mountain earlier in the morning but got disoriented around the 11,000' mark while coming back down.

One of the hikers got back to their base camp and waited an hour, but the other hiker did not show – prompting the 911 call.

Siskiyou County Sheriff Search and Rescue and the Mount Shasta Avalanche Center & Home of the Climbing Rangers mobilized search crews, but inclement weather stopped air support from deploying that first day.

Temperatures dropped, plus rain and snow moved in on the 14,179' peak, forcing the search effort to be delayed until Aug. 17.

That morning, a California Highway Patrol helicopter started searching the mountain. The sheriff's office says the hiker was eventually spotted off-trail a little after noon at the base of a cliff.

It appears the hiker, who was wedged between the scree slope and an ice sheet, had been involved in a significant fall – leaving him with significant injuries.

A medical helicopter was deployed and, by 3 p.m., the man was hoisted up and flown to a hospital in Redding.

"This is the sixth call we've had in the past couple of weeks on the east side of Mt. Shasta," said Sgt. Aaron Jacobsen with the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office in a statement.

The hikers had used the Clear Creek Trail route, considered one of the easier routes to summit Mt. Shasta. Still, the sheriff's office says the rescue underlines how dangerous even "safe" routes can be. 

Mt. Shasta is the fifth-highest mountain in California. It's located about 60 miles north of Redding. 

• Siskiyou County