UPDATE: Redondo Beach Hiker Still Missing as Night Falls on Frigid San Jacinto Peak

A Redondo Beach man who set out to climb San Jacinto Peak on Saturday remained missing Sunday night as darkness and freezing cold descended on snow-blanketed alpine high country above the San Gorgonio Pass.

Temperatures in the teens were measured after 10 p.m. Sunday at the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway mountain station, where 57-year-old Brian Carrico left Saturday morning with a permit to climb to San Jacinto's 10,834-foot summit.

"We've had a lot of trouble with the snow-depth," Cpl. Dave Douglas of the Riverside County sheriff's Emergency Response Team told Patch after sundown below the tramway's lower station. "It's not snowpack, it's powder.

"We will have people searching through the night," Douglas said. "Our most experienced people will be up there."

Family members told authorities Carrico had a daypack, food, water, and warm clothing, and they described him as an experienced hiker. The last known time his cellular phone was functional was at noon Saturday, sheriff's officials said.

Two feet of fresh-fallen snow and dense cloud cover hampered the search for Carrico at times on Sunday. Cloud banks burned off east of the peak before sundown, but clearer weather meant it would be colder overnight.

Alpine-trained volunteers with the Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit were called out Saturday night in "white-out" conditions, a rescue official said. A team from Sierra Madre joined the search Sunday, as well as four members of a state team who specialize in backcountry ski mountaineering and assessing avalanche risk.

"We train in the Sierras and we go anywhere in California," the Cal EMA team's coordinator, Mike St. Clair, said in an interview Sunday night. "We're also a National Ski Patrol team.

Carrico rode the tram up to the mountain station  Saturday morning, Riverside County sheriff's officials said.

When Carrico did not return at a pre-determined time Saturday, concerned family members contacted State Park authorities, who in turn contacted the sheriff's department.

Deputies found Carrico's locked vehicle in the tramway parking lot below the lower station.

Conditions in the San Jacinto high country Saturday night included snowfall and temperatures in the low to mid-20s, sheriff's officials said. A rescue supervisor calling out volunteers Saturday said conditions were "white-out."

Search teams were deployed within a few hours of the initial call, and volunteers worked their way through heavy snow to check known shelters, according to Lt. Ruben Navarro of the sheriff's Cabazon Station.

A command post was in place just before noon Sunday at the mountain station, a Tramway official said.

Frigid alpine conditions gripped the mountain Sunday night, but search teams and anyone else out in the open benefited from light north winds under 5 miles per hour before midnight Sunday.

The summit of San Jacinto Peak, the second-highest point in Southern California, stands at 10,834 feet above sea level. The top of the mountain is about a six-mile walk by trail from the tramway mountain station at 8,500 feet elevation, but the trail disappears in snow conditions.

Anyone with information about Carrico's whereabouts was urged to call the Cabazon Station at (951) 922-7100 or send an email to CabazonStation@riversidesheriff.org.