DOGGONE LUCKY—A dog belonging to Ashley Brook-Hall of Thousand Oaks is wrapped in a thermal blanket after being rescued with Hall and a companion, Fredrick Kassel of T.O. NANCY NEEDHAM/Acorn Newspapers Two groups of hikers and their dogs that became lost in the Santa Monica Mountains in mid-February were found safe following an all-night search by the Malibu Mountain Rescue Team.

After Ashley Brooke-Hall, 20, and Fredrick Kassel, 28, both of Thousand Oaks, didn’t return home from their hike on the evening of Feb. 15 as planned, Hall’s roommates reported the pair missing.

According to Sgt. Tui Wright, Mountain Rescue reserve coordinator, Hall had told her roommates where she and Kassel had planned to hike—the Backbone Trail off Newton Canyon trail head in Zuma Canyon.

Wright said when deputies arrived after midnight in the trail parking lot off Kanan Road, they found two vehicles, one belonging to Hall.

“It’s a treacherous canyon,” Wright said. “The terrain is very hard to negotiate.”

Using a helicopter and night vision goggles, rescuers spotted a small campfire in lower Zuma Canyon. After a six-hour search, the rescue team reached the site at daybreak, but instead of finding Hall and Kassel, they’d found another group of hikers who had also become disoriented and lost while hiking in the hills. Chris O’Sullivan, Ryan Torigoe and brothers Keven and Rich O’Farrell from Hollywood had their pit bull in tow.

One of the men had an injured ankle, and Dep. Timothy Safarik slipped and fell on a boulder, injuring his ribcage and exposing himself to poison oak. The hikers were airlifted out of the canyon, but Wright, Rich O’Farrell and his dog that was agitated by the noise of the helicopter and was too nervous to be placed on the helicopter cable, stayed behind. Wright hiked with O’Farrell and his dog to an access road where they could be driven elsewhere.

Although the four Hollywood men didn’t know Hall and Kassel, they said they had seen them the previous day and gave deputies clues as to where they could be found.

Hall and Kassel, it turned out, were close by—just a couple of hundred yards away from the first group of men. They, too, were airlifted from the rugged terrain, along with Hall’s dog, which was connected to a helicopter cable and dangled in an open air ride to safety.

Wright said it’s not unusual for hikers to become disoriented and lost in the Santa Monica Mountains.

“We also get quite a few calls of vehicles that have gone over the sides, crash and go over the cliff,” Wright said.

In those cases, the search and rescue team works with the fire department.

Wright said hikers are sometimes misinformed about the location of trails.

“In Zuma Canyon there’s really no trail, but people seem to think there is,” he said. “There are many rescues in that area.”

Wright recommends that anybody who plans to hike in the Santa Monica Mountains should prepare for the possibility of getting lost. Always tell a friend, he said, or leave a note describing exactly where you’re going and when you expect to return.

Wright also recommends bringing a cellphone with a fully charged battery and essential survival gear, such as an emergency space blanket, a flashlight for signaling, extra clothes, water, food and a first-aid kit.

“A lot of people are successfully rescued because they have cellphones and can be located by GPS coordinates,” Wright said.