For a third straight day, dozens of searchers were continuing to comb the rugged terrain below Gaviota Peak on Tuesday for any sign of missing hiker Tim Sgrignoli.
The 29-year-old Ventura man was last seen Sunday afternoon when he parted ways with his girlfriend on the Trespass Trail, a challenging 3-mile trek that starts just north of the Gaviota Tunnel and ends in a stunning viewpoint overlooking the ocean.
The couple had reached the summit and had started back down when the woman began experiencing heat exhaustion amid triple-digit temperatures, Commander Erik Raney of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office told Noozhawk.
The pair developed a plan, Raney said: Sgrignoli would head downhill toward their vehicle to seek supplies and help, leaving the Ventura woman with their only cell phone and instructions to call 9-1-1 if her symptoms worsened.
The woman holed up in the shade of some rock outcroppings and caves, he said, and eventually made a call for help.
A county helicopter located her and hoisted her off the trail, then took her to nearby Fire Station 38. The woman, whose name has not been released, was treated for mild heat exhaustion, but was not hospitalized.
At that point, rescuers turned their attention to locating Sgrignoli, whom Raney described as an experienced hiker and outdoorsman.
County firefighters and sheriff’s personnel and resources — including Search & Rescue Team volunteers, K-9 units, helicopters and drones — were deployed, and the effort continued through the night with no sign of the missing man.
Extreme heat Sunday and Monday hampered the search operation, Raney said, limiting the amount of time people and dogs could search before needing a break.
He added that conditions had eased somewhat on Tuesday, with temperature highs mostly in the 80s.
“Heat has been the biggest challenge,” Raney said, “keeping search resources safe and healthy.”
Monday night the operation transitioned to the Sheriff’s Office, which called in search and rescue resources from throughout the region, including the Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange County and Riverside sheriff’s departments, as well as state agencies.
There is a vast area to search, much of it in steep canyons that require personnel to be lowered to the ground from helicopter hoist systems.
Helicopters and drones continue to be used strategically, Raney said, but are limited by the dense vegetation.
“There’s a lot of low scrub brush and oak trees,” Raney said. “The helicopters can only see the visible stuff, they can’t see through that brush.”
K-9 units — both live-scent and cadaver dogs — have been used to try and track Sgrignoli’s route, but thus far have come up empty.
Several theories account for what may have happened to Sgrignoli, Raney said.
He might have taken a wrong turn, or gotten lost trying to find a shortcut back to their vehicle. With the blazing conditions, he could have suffered heat illness himself, or fallen and been injured.
It’s also possible Sgrignoli made it down to the highway before something else happened to him, although the couple’s vehicle was still at the parking area.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Raney said his team was still involved in a search and rescue operation.
“At some point, the experts making these plans will have to make the determination of how much longer we can search,” he added.
— Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at tbolton@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
