Charlie Zulu,
Whilst doing my Big Bear checkout with a mate (to enable us to take hired aircraft there), was chatting to a local in the cafe who kept his there. He threw into the conversation that a couple of people die there each year and they always end up in the trees at the end of the runway before the lake!
FFF is spot on - get yourself an instructor to brief you and do a flight or two with you first before you go solo, high altitude flying can be a completely different ball game.
Julian.