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SALT LAKE COUNTY —Three teenagers spent half of the night scared and lost in the mountains near Big Cottonwood Canyon.
The mother of one of the teens says she warned her son not to go to Heughs Canyon Thursday night due to a storm, but they went anyway. Apparently the boys had set up camp and planned to spend the night. But they went for a hike, got disoriented in the weather and started calling police and their families for help.
Daphne Mendez said, "My son called me at about 10 p.m. and he said, ‘Mom, I'm going to die.'"
Lt. Justin Hoyal of the Unified Police Department said, "Even our rescuers had mentioned that visibility was difficult, hard to see up there at times because of the weather. So it does add a factor up there for our rescuers to get to them."
It took crews about three hours to find the teens. The three were cold but otherwise OK.
Rescuers say the most important thing you can do in situations like this is take a cell phone with you, and if you get lost, stay where you are.
