Disoriented Fairfax Hiker Found in His Car After All-Night Search on Mount Tam

After a night-long search on the north side of Mount Tamalpais in an area that rescue workers refer to as “the black hole," they found missing Fairfax hiker Christian Burboa Fuenzalida back in his car, driving out of the Bon Tempe Dam parking lot at around 8 a.m. Tuesday.

“When he was found he was definitely hypothermic,” said Mill Valley Fire Battalion Chief Michael St. John, who also heads Marin County Search and Rescue. Monday night was rainy, cold and windy as teams from across the North Bay began scouring the area around 10 p.m. after a family member received a broken-up cell phone call from Fuenzalida saying he was lost and disoriented.

The 38-year-old native of Chile hiked from Bon Tempe Lake out to Kent Lake – at one point about 10 miles from his car – and was able to retrace his steps back to the parking lot in the early morning.

“Throughout the night we were all around him,” St. John said. But as Fuenzalida was making his way back, workers had already cleared those areas and had moved on to outer territories.

 “He had hiked for a long distance and make it back to his car when we found him,” St. John said. He was driving out of the parking lot “when a searcher looked over and said ‘there he is.’”

Fuenzalida was confused, and treated for hypothermia by the Ross Valley and Marin County fire departments.. It down-poured Monday night, and Fuenzalida’s cotton clothes were soaked through.

“It might as well have been a March storm,” St. John said.

Fuenzalida, who was unfamiliar with the area, began his hike late Monday afternoon. Around 8 p.m. he texted photos to a family member of himself at Kent Trail heading toward Alpine Lake, and rescue workers were able to use the photos to identify where he was at that time.

At about 10 p.m., Marin Muncipal Water District rangers did a routine check of the watershed before closing the gates, and noticed a car in the Bon Tempe parking lot. Around that same time, Fuenzalida had a spotty connection when he made a call to a family member saying he was lost, but it was enough for that family member to call 911, St. John said.

Sheriff’s deputies, rangers from the water district and 12 members of Marin Search and Rescue used dogs to try to track him down. From Kent Trail, Fuenzalida took the Helen Markt Trail down to Cataract Trail, and was at the Alpine Dam as it was getting dark.

“It’s now of course starting to pour,” St. John said.

Disoriented, Fuenzalida then got onto Kent Pump Road and walked along the service road out to Kent Lake, well outside of the search area.

“Most people wouldn’t go all the way to Alpine Lake,” St. John said.

By the time Fuenzalida turned around and began retracing his steps, rescue workers had already cleared those areas and had moved on.

Fuenzalida said he had attempted to use the map on his iPhone to find his way back, but service in the area is spotty at best, and his phone went dead. He did not have a tangible map, St. Johns said.

Around 7 a.m., after a night of searching, St. John said they requested backup from Sonoma and Contra Costa search and rescue teams, the Marin County Fire Department, and the North Bay Incident Management team.

About an hour later, he was spotted driving away in his car.

The area west of Lake Laguinatas that Fuenzalida was hiking in is heavily forested, has no cell phone coverage and is a frequent location where hikers get lost, St. John said.

“We call it a black hole,” he said, “because it’s a common place we do searches.”