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Early on a September morning, with the smell of smoke in the air as a wildfire raged five miles away, a team set out on a search and rescue attempt in Big Sur. A few weeks before, they had spent hours clearing chaparral to hike in to the site. Today, they had to set rope gear and rappel 50 feet to a cliffside cave. One of the rescuers, Gavin Emmons, hung 100 feet above the ground, then squirmed his way through a 3-foot-wide hole before wriggling 10 feet into the cave to reach his target. But this search and rescue wasn’t for a lost hiker or an injured rock climber. Instead, Emmons made his way toward a 15-pound baby condor hiding in its nest. He needed to get the endangered chick out before the Dolan Fire reached the cave.