Hiker left on Colorado mountain by coworkers stranded overnight in freezing rain, high winds

Associated Press

SALIDA, Colo. (AP) — A man near by his group of agency coworkers to complete his last push to nan acme of a Colorado upland became disoriented and fell aggregate times during a nighttime connected nan upland successful freezing rainfall and precocious winds.

Chaffee County Search and Rescue officials said successful a Facebook station that they were called Friday nighttime astir an overdue hiker connected Mount Shavano. The mountain, which has an elevation of 14,231 feet (4,338 meters), is astir 153 miles (426 kilometers) southwest of Denver.

A group of 15 hikers, including nan man, near nan trailhead astatine sunrise Friday arsenic portion of an agency retreat pinch immoderate members of nan group readying to climb to nan summit. The man was near to complete his last acme push alone, officials said.

The man summited astir 11:30 a.m. Friday and became disoriented erstwhile he turned to descend, uncovering that belongings near successful a boulder section to people nan descent had been picked up, officials said. When his first descents put him into a scree field, which is an unstable slope composed of stone fragments and different debris, he texted his coworkers who told him he was disconnected people and to climb backmost up to find nan trail.

Shortly earlier 4 p.m., he texted that he was adjacent nan trail, but a beardown large wind moved done pinch freezing rainfall and precocious winds and he became disoriented and mislaid cellphone service, nan station said.

The hunt and rescue squad sewage a telephone astir 9 p.m. and sent teams retired that searched unsuccessfully until nan adjacent morning. They encountered precocious winds and freezing rain, which made reaching nan acme unsafe, officials said. A hunt chopper besides did not find nan hiker overnight.

On Saturday greeting arsenic rescuers from astir a twelve agencies were starting a ample hunt effort, nan hiker called 911 and crews were capable to find him successful a gully. He told hunt and rescue officials that he had fallen astatine slightest 20 times connected nan steep slopes during nan large wind and, aft nan past fall, was incapable to get backmost up.

After nan man was extracted from nan gully, stabilized and evaluated, he was taken to a infirmary for further care. The man’s sanction and grade of his injuries wasn’t released.

“This hiker was phenomenally fortunate to person regained compartment work erstwhile he did, and to still person capable consciousness and wherewithal to telephone 911,” hunt and rescue officials said. “Though he was located successful a tertiary hunt area, it would person been immoderate clip earlier teams made it to that location connected their own.”