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Couple have a scary hike on Mount Shasta

Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

(06-24) 16:15 PDT WEED (SISKIYOU COUNTY) -- Salvador Frias and Patricia Giamoni made their first big date a memorable one.

Frias, a personal trainer from Millbrae, and Giamoni have known each other for years, but their hike up Mount Shasta on Saturday was their first major outing together. They made it up a trail close to the top, but the weather got bad, they became disoriented and headed back - taking a wrong, perilous path.

Soon they were in trouble on Whitney Glacier. They put out calls for help and then picked their way down, in winds so strong that at one point Giamoni was blown off her feet. Rescuers who swarmed the mountain over the next two days never saw them.

Just before midnight Monday, the two showed up in Weed (Siskiyou County), 10 miles from the 14,162-foot mountain, having survived treacherous slopes and then following railroad tracks and a dirt road to a forest products company. They were tired and dehydrated but otherwise in good spirits.

"It was definitely an adventure," Giamoni, 37, a high school teacher from Apex, N.C., said Tuesday at a news conference at the Weed airport. "It started out as an adventure. We just didn't expect it to go where it went."

"We're very grateful," said Frias, 38. "It will continue to sink in, in the days to come."

Frias' sister, Luz Daniel of Millbrae, said in a phone interview that she had no doubts her brother would make it off the mountain. She said he climbs it a couple of times each year.

"But obviously the longer it took to get word back, we had to even be stronger," Daniel said. "We were very confident in his ability. He's a very determined and driven person. ... He came out of there just the way I expected him - on his own two feet."

Frias has worked as a personal trainer at Excel Fitness in San Mateo since it opened six years ago, said owner John Walker.

"If anyone could make it," Walker said, "it would be Sal."

The odyssey began Friday night when Frias and Giamoni parked at Bunny Flat trailhead at the 6,890-foot level on Mount Shasta's south side. At 3 a.m. Saturday, they started up the Avalanche Gulch trail and by 9 a.m. had made it nearly to the top of the mountain.

They were there for about 15 minutes and then high winds buffeted them, Daniel said. Frias said the two had to lock arms to keep from being blown away. The water in Giamoni's bottle froze within minutes.

They had been disoriented by the high wind and ended up hiking down Whitney Glacier, a more difficult route than Avalanche Gulch. By the time they realized they had taken the wrong trail, there was no way to turn back, Frias said.

"We couldn't go back the other way," he said.

Instead, they went down a "a difficult glacier riddled with crevasses" and slushy columns of ice, said Eric White, the lead climbing ranger with the U.S. Forest Service for Mount Shasta.

They didn't sleep, except for a few minutes at a time, to avoid freezing to death. They were dressed in proper clothing and had the right climbing equipment, including ice crampons, but they ran out of water even though Frias had brought extra, White said.

"My brother said he normally wouldn't have packed as much water as he did," Daniel said. "If he hadn't, they wouldn't have survived."

At about 9:25 p.m. Saturday, when they were at the 10,500-foot level, Frias called 911 for help. His call was lost before the California Highway Patrol was able to transfer it to the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Department, said Susan Gravenkamp, a sheriff's spokeswoman. Several attempts to call the number back were unsuccessful.

About 9:55 p.m., Giamoni called her son in North Carolina, who in turn contacted sheriff's officials. The son was able to provide half of the hikers' GPS coordinates - the latitude only, Gravenkamp said.

Frias and Giamoni decided their best chance was to go down the mountain. An air and ground search of the mountain Sunday and Monday, involving more than 100 people, failed to locate them.

Before the two started up the mountain, Frias sent his sister's daughters a photo of him and Giamoni, along with a text message. It read, "Hi girls. We're in Shasta at Black Bear Diamond. Patti says hi and can't wait to meet you. She wants to see 'Kung Fu Panda' on Monday. I will send you pix. I love you both."

Frias and Giamoni have known each other for 20 years but only recently got back in touch, Daniel said. The trip to Mount Shasta was "their first really big date," she said.

Daniel added with a laugh, "So we'll see what the outcome is."