In a January news release, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department compared Mount Baldy, the 10,064-foot peak that serves as the highest point in Los Angeles County, to Mount Everest, the infamous 29,032-foot peak straddling the border of Nepal and Tibet.
Using the comparison to warn of the ongoing winter dangers on Mount Baldy, which saw three deaths in one day in December, the sheriff’s department tallied 23 deaths on Mount Baldy between 2016 and 2025, compared with 64 deaths on Mount Everest during that same period. The sheriff’s department also noted a total of 345 search and rescue operations on Mount Baldy during that 10-year time period.
“The frequency of rescues our department is involved in annually, and the lack of concern for what’s happening on Mt. Baldy by those who are responsible for maintaining visitors’ safety needs to be addressed. For the last several years, our department has been trying to have the U.S Forest Service more involved in keeping people safe while they recreate on Mt Baldy,” Sheriff Shannon Dicus said in the news release.
This year’s deadly winter season on Mount Baldy has left public officials, avid hikers and armchair social media commenters alike all scrambling to figure out how to reduce fatalities on the peak that looms over Los Angeles. But attempting to compare the mountain with other prominent peaks only seems to underscore the unique challenges facing Mount Baldy, where millions of people live in close proximity to the trailhead and conditions are deceptively different in the summer versus winter months…