Man missing for three days after telling family he was headed to Mt. Baldy

A 72-year-old man who told his family he was going hiking Monday at Mt. Baldy has been missing ever since.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is asking for the public’s help in locating Kwang Sun Kim, who last contacted his family at 8 a.m. Monday.

A Los Angeles County resident, Kim is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 130 pounds. He has brown eyes and short black hair.

Anyone with information about Kim’s whereabouts is asked to contact Det. T. Abraham at the LASD Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500. Those wishing to report anonymously may call (800)-222-TIPS (8477).

The hike to Mt. Baldy is appealing to many because of its proximity to Los Angeles, but it is also strenuous and, in the winter and early spring, requires technical equipment including microspikes, which help a person’s boot better grip the ground in icy conditions.

In December, a member of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department search-and-rescue team was found dead in the ice and snow during a search of Mt. Baldy for a missing hiker.

Search crews were combing Mt. Baldy for any sign of Sreenivas “Sree” Mokkapati, a 52-year-old Irvine resident who went missing after getting separated from his group. Search-and-rescue missions were canceled after the team volunteer, Tim Staples, 32, a social science and English teacher at Damien High School in La Verne, died. Mokkapati has not been found.

This past week, a hiker who attempted to reach Mt. Baldy via the Devil’s Backbone Trail wrote on the AllTrails page for that route that they did not finish their trek because there was too much snow.

“Came up about a mile from summit before it got too unsafe to continue,” the review reads.