By Mikaela STONE

With the highest number of national parks and national forests of any state, it is no surprise that California faces an equally high number of search and rescue calls. Answering between 115 and 161 calls a year, Montrose Search and Rescue (MSAR) serves the heavily trafficked Angeles National Forest, the Angeles Crest Highway and surrounding areas. Volunteers face a rigorous one to two year long training process that encompasses the area’s difficult terrain and proximity to the city of Los Angeles. 

Like the majority of United States search and rescue teams, the MSAR team is volunteer-run and are first responders. As one of the eight search and rescue teams affiliated with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Dept., MSAR is watched over by coordinator Sergeant John Gilbert, who ensures procedures are followed in the event the team’s work overlaps with criminal activity. During Gilbert’s six and a half years with MSAR, the team responded to calls for cars over the side of the Angeles Crest Highway, hikers with sprains or broken bones, people suffering from heat exhaustion, and lost hikers. Gilbert confirms that the number of calls to MSAR has trended upward: more people are visiting Angeles Crest Forest than ever before, from those who fell in love with nature during the COVID pandemic to car enthusiasts enjoying the scenic routes. Montrose Search and Rescue had answered 93 calls by the end of June 2025. 

“This year, if this pace continues, we are on track to beat our all time record,” Sgt. Gilbert said. 

New technology has made it easier for those in need to call search and rescue. Before, if someone were injured on trail, their hiking buddy would have to return to the trail head and drive to be within cell service before calling for help. The injured person might have to wait three to four hours. Now technology has made it easier for people to reach search and rescue. The Apple iPhone SOS and satellite-based emergency systems, such as the Garmin InReach, ensures calls for help reach their destination even if they’re off the grid. 

Gilbert remembers one such instance in December 2022, shortly after the invention of the Apple SOS, when a couple driving on the Angeles Crest Highway plunged over the side. No human witnessed the crash. While most instances of this are fatal, the couple’s iPhone automatically sent out an SOS after being ejected through the window. Montrose Search and Rescue arrived by helicopter between 30 and 45 minutes later. If not for that SOS, they may have been there for hours before their loved ones realized what happened. Both survived. 

On the job, MSAR uses the CalTopo program: a back country mapping program that keeps track of rescuers’ data to ensure maximum coverage of wilderness areas. Other search and rescue technology includes aerial scans for heat signatures and a computer program that identifies specifically colored pixels that can be used to spot clothes the missing person is wearing. United search and rescue teams from all over California used this program in their search for hiker Monica Reza, who went missing in the Angeles National Forest. Last seen on June 22, Reza wore red for her hike. While the search and rescue teams did not spot Reza, the program proved adept at finding the requested colors by pinpointing a number of red mylar balloons left in the forest. Montrose Search and Rescue will continue to look for Reza across the 40-50 mile potential search area. Community members have offered support of their own; currently, the “Help Find Monica Reza in the Angeles National Forest” Facebook group is hosting community hike events each weekend hoping to aid efforts. 

To find a missing person, Montrose Search and Rescue’s first pass is called a “hasty search” – but this is a search that is anything but hasty. Search and rescue team members hike down the trail the missing person took, then explore trails the person might have taken from their previous known location. Once MSAR has searched all reasonable trails, they take their search off trail. The Angeles National Forest features steep inclines and loose soil, requiring team members to be experienced mountaineers, climbers and rappellers as they search the off-trail areas where a person may have ended up. These ground forces are supplemented by aerial resources, including the LA Sheriff Dept.’s helicopter Air Rescue 5. During Sgt. Gilbert’s time as coordinator, there have been only seven or eight multi-day searches for victims. 

2025 has been particularly eventful for the Montrose Search and Rescue team due to its involvement in the Palisades and Eaton Fire recovery effort alongside fire personnel and search and rescue teams from as far away as San Diego. 

“It was something I had never done before and hope to never do again,” Sgt. Gilbert said. MSAR took a prominent role in organizing and executing search efforts for eight days, as well as post fire recovery efforts for the deceased. At that point, the cause of the fires were unknown, which required search and rescue units to treat each retrieval as a potential crime scene for an arson case. 

What does it take to be on such a prolific team? The most important thing, according to Sgt. Gilbert, is “a gigantic heart, to want to do the right thing for people they don’t even know.” 

The team is made up of LASD reserve members who are paid one dollar a year, which allows for record of employment so that they can receive medical care in the event of an emergency, and passionate volunteers willing to learn a wide variety of skills such as climbing, cold survival, water rescue, knowledge of the local area, fire safety and de-escalation. Some volunteers even go through the officer reserve academy. Almost all the volunteers are employed full time despite being on call for each and rescue at all hours. 

As for Gilbert himself, he trained as a sheriff in Palmdale before becoming a patrol deputy – all the while picking up “a little bit of everything.” While he liked hiking and the outdoors, when he was first offered the position as MSAR coordinator, he had a more casual relationship with mountaineering. He had never rappelled, rock climbed, or ice climbed. Soon, Gilbert discovered he had “fallen in love with the job and the team” and dedicated himself to learning the skills expected of a volunteer. “If I am supposed to manage these people…I should have that skill set myself,” he says. He admires his team for their dedication, especially when the team is “dog tired and hiking out in the middle of the night or climbing down.”