Trails on Mt. Baldy, the towering peak that looms over Southern California and has lured many inexperienced and under-equipped hikers to their deaths, will be closed for the next two weeks.
Angeles National Forest officials issued the closure order Tuesday morning in anticipation of a winter storm that is expected to dump heavy snow on the 10,000-foot summit.
Three hikers died after sliding off the icy, narrow Devil’s Backbone trail and plummeting to their deaths after a storm in December. In the last decade, 23 people have died on the mountain, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, whose search and rescue unit has responded to hundreds of calls for help on Mt. Baldy in that period…