Fall killed veteran hiker on Southern California peak

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County coroner’s office says the death of a veteran hiker on Southern California’s towering Mount Baldy was due to a fall.

Coroner’s Lt. David Smith tells the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/2nF9ZPR ) that 78-year-old Seuk Doo Kim suffered blunt trauma in a fall down a trail.

Kim was well known for having made more than 700 ascents of the 10,064-foot (3,068-meter) mountain, the highest point in Los Angeles County.

He was reported missing on April 9, and a helicopter crew spotted his body two days later on the northwest side of the peak at an elevation of 8,800 feet (2682.24 metres).

Kim moved from South Korea to Southern California in 1981 and often climbed the mountain daily.

He once called Mount Baldy “better than church.”

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Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/