HIKER LOST IN MOUNTAINS WHEN BIG STORM ROARS IN.

Byline: Stacy Brown and Romy Jacobson Daily News Staff Writers

Searchers with tracking dogs fanned out in the mountains around Gorman on Saturday, looking for a missing hiker who was separated from her friends during the Southland's first severe El Nino-related storm.

Family members of 40-year-old Karen Tellez rushed to the scene while her five children waited at home for news of their mother, who was lost about 1 p.m. Friday in heavy rain and snow flurries.

``I keep thinking she must be hungry,'' said the missing woman's 20-year-old daughter, Ciara, at the family's home in Palmdale. She said her mother probably didn't have much food, although she was wearing a raincoat, had a backpack and was an experienced hiker.

``We think what happened with our mom is that she probably just kept going to see if she could find her way out and then she got tired and found a place to rest,'' said another daughter, Adrianne, 16.

Tellez and her friends were hiking in the Three Points area near Gorman on Friday afternoon when they were hit by the storm.

``We were on the trail since about 9 a.m. Friday and then the weather started getting bad and because we couldn't see anything we got separated,'' said Raymond Dymodski, one of her hiking companions. ``I went back and saw that her trail went the wrong way, I tried for awhile to locate her and then called for help.''

Dymodski, Jerry Plant and Peggy Plant were able to make it to safety.

``When the three companions found their way out, they contacted the Santa Clarita Valley sheriff's station and rescue personnel was sent to the area,'' said Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. Carl Deeley.

Dymodski suffered hypothermia and was transported to Antelope Valley Medical Center for treatment.

The four hikers work at the hospital. Tellez and Dymodski are mental health aides and the Plants are nurses.

The weather made visibility so poor Saturday that helicopters could not be used in the search. ``There's no way we can send a helicopter out there in these conditions,'' said sheriff's Lt. Larry Gump.

As light began to fade late Saturday afternoon, the Sheriff's Department pulled most searchers out of the area.

Gump said a few rescue workers will stay in the region overnight. He said the search will start in earnest at daybreak today.

Officials said search-and-rescue team members from Santa Clarita, Lancaster, Crescenta Valley, Lost Hills, Sierra Madre and San Dimas were hampered by the difficult weather conditions caused by the storm.

The muddy, snowy conditions caused several rescue vehicles to get stuck and made the searching on foot particularly difficult.

Ciara Tellez said she was grateful for her mother's friends.

``Everybody has been very supportive. You don't realize how many friends you have until people start calling,'' she said.

She said more than 100 people had been looking for her mother since Friday.

``People that know my mom have been showing up to volunteer,'' she said.

CAPTION(S):

map, photo

PHOTO (color) Karen Tellez

Last seen near Gorman

MAP: Where hiker as last seen

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