SNOWSTORM SPURS MOUNTAIN RESCUES.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem and Holly Edwards Staff Writers

ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST - A caretaker trapped at a church retreat with his family and 150 children and staff members stuck at a school camp were rescued Tuesday after being stranded deep in the Angeles National Forest by near-blizzard conditions.

After an earlier air rescue was aborted because of snow and ice, a sheriff's helicopter took advantage of a lull in the storm to land at the retreat and fly out the family of five. They had been without heat for about four days as overnight lows dropped below freezing, and an elderly family member had run out of medication to treat her diabetes, officials said.

``They were cold and they were running out of supplies,'' said Deputy David Martin, the helicopter's pilot. ``They needed help.''

Rescuers also were trying to reach the family along treacherous canyon roads, which are not normally plowed because they are so remote, Martin said.

About the same time, a convoy of school buses headed up another forest road to retrieve 150 children, staff members and camp counselors stranded at Camp High Hill near Mount Wilson.

The fifth-graders from Prisk Elementary School in Long Beach had to ``hike out a bit'' to the waiting buses, which were escorted up newly plowed roads to the camp - elevation 4,000 feet - by sheriff's and California Highway Patrol officers, said Sgt. Don Hudalla of the Crescenta Valley sheriff's station in La Crescenta.

The outdoor science camp has been operated by the Long Beach Unified School District since 1948. The district sends a group of fifth-graders to the camp every week, but had not had a snow evacuation in recent memory, officials said.

A power outage, coupled with 4 feet of new snow, prompted school officials to bring the students home Tuesday, just one day after their arrival.

``Most kids dream of snow when they go to Camp High Hill, but this time Mother Nature was a little too generous,'' district spokesman Dick VanVerLaan said.