BREAKING NEWS

Two hikers missing in Southern California mountains

Rescuers searched California's Mount Baldy area on Tuesday for a man and a woman who went missing over the weekend while hiking, officials said.

Eric Desplinter, 33, and Gabrielle Wallace, 31, were last seen on Saturday as they headed toward Cucamonga Peak in the Mount Baldy area, which is 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Los Angeles, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said in a statement.

A friend of the two hikers, who had a limited amount of food and water, reported them missing that day after they failed to return from their excursion.

Desplinter, who is from Chino Hills, is an experienced outdoorsman, the Sheriff's Department statement said. He was wearing a jacket and his friend Wallace, who is from Rancho Cucamonga, had a sweater.

Rescuers searching the Mount Baldy area since Saturday have discovered a beanie and a trekking pole but it was not clear if those items belonged to the missing hikers.

On Tuesday, more than a dozen rescue workers were flown to a peak to walk through an elevated area that had not been searched, the Sheriff's Department statement said.