Update: Mike Leum, Assistant Director and Reserve Chief of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Search and Rescue, told Patch the injured woman was transported via ground ambulance and not helicopter, as a LASD press release had mentioned.
Update from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department:
On Monday, November 26, 2012, at approximately 5:45 P.M., Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department personnel assigned to the Altadena Search and Rescue Team were deployed to Eaton Canyon Falls to search for two female residents of Alhambra who sustained injuries while hiking in the Angeles National Forest.
The first hiker, who fell approximately 30 feet, sustained what appeared to be two broken femurs, as well as significant head injuries. She was rescued from the canyon by members of the Search and Rescue team and airlifted to a local hospital by a Los Angeles County Fire Department helicopter.
The second hiker, who sustained only minor injuries during the hike, was treated at the scene by Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedics. She was released at the scene.
Both hikers are expected to make a full recovery.
Earlier:
Two Alhambra women in their 20s were injured, one critically, in an apparent fall at an Eaton Canyon waterfall Monday. The exact circumstances of how the women were injured was not available.
"Unfortunately a lot of hikers underestimate mother nature," Lisa Derderian of the Pasadena Fire Department said, pointing out that a number of hikers are injured in the canyon.
Los Angeles County paramedics and members of the Altadena Search and Rescue team were helping rescue the women, whose fall was reported about 5:30 p.m., Derderian said.
Derderian said about 7:30 p.m. that rescuers thought it would take them at least another 45 minutes to get the women out. Derderian said she thought the second woman's injuries were minor. It was too dark for a helicopter to hoist the women out of the canyon, so they were being taken out on gurneys, Derderian said.
