CA CA - Monica Reza, 60, hiker, Mount Waterman, Los Angeles National Forest, 22 Jun 2025

[moonglow123]

I hope she'll be found soon. I do agree that her going off trail and accidentally falling seems like the most reasonable scenario. But it's mighty sad for an experienced hiker to have the terrible misfortune of falling, AND also not being found.

I'm surprised they haven't been able to find her by scoping out where her hat was found, roughly where the friend saw her and where the women heard someone in anguish. If that was her in anguish, she couldn't have been that far from those women. She must be somewhere roughly in the vicinity.

Sadly, I know there are countless instances of people getting lost off trail and never being found and it never gets less heartbreaking and frustrating.

 

[planet]

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I hope she'll be found soon. I do agree that her going off trail and accidentally falling seems like the most reasonable scenario. But it's mighty sad for an experienced hiker to have the terrible misfortune of falling, AND also not being found.

I'm surprised they haven't been able to find her by scoping out where her hat was found, roughly where the friend saw her and where the women heard someone in anguish. If that was her in anguish, she couldn't have been that far from those women. She must be somewhere roughly in the vicinity.

Sadly, I know there are countless instances of people getting lost off trail and never being found and it never gets less heartbreaking and frustrating.

It is a tragedy.

I do think that her missing the turn north and continuing to run west off the trail is the most plausible scenario. It could explain why there was a distance between her and the next hiker, if she had fallen behind in running. If she was running, she had less time to assess the route change than if she was walking. She would have had more forward momentum off the trail than if walking.

There is a deep canyon below on the south-southwest side of the ridge. Because the trail is on the ridge at this point, veering off the trail means dropping down the slope quite quickly, which funnels towards the canyon. Because she was running, recovering from any drop might not have been possible.

Many hikers who disappear in terrain like this can't be located because there are just too many places out of view. I think it suggests how precarious it can be to hike ridge trails (thinking of the wind as well). There may be only a small margin of safety for even the most experienced hikers.

I suspect someone has thought of putting a marker up at that west end of the bend to alert hikers that not to go that direction.

 

[planet]

When I looked at images of the trail from the 6,000 ft day use to Mt. Waterman and back, I had difficulty understanding how anybody might fall. It looks steep, but I didn't see edges and slopes. Viewing the route in Google Earth 3D changed that.

I've posted photos showing:

1. A 3D view west from Mt. Waterman along the ridge towards Monica's last known position (LKP). You can see the map marker for the parking lot and trailhead at top right
2. A 2D view of her LKP and the location of her hat. These appear to be close on a flattened terrain view
3. A close up view of the terrain looking east from below her hat position to her LKP
4. A zoomed out view from the southwest of these points that shows how the chutes funnel into canyons
5. A view from approximately west showing multiple canyons on the south side of the ridge

I hope I can display these in the correct order.