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

SALIDA, Colo. (AP) — A man left by his group of office coworkers to complete his final push to the summit of a Colorado mountain became disoriented and fell multiple times during a night on the mountain in freezing rain and high winds.

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

A group of 15 hikers, including the man, left the trailhead at sunrise Friday as part of an office retreat with some members of the group planning to climb to the summit. The man was left to complete his final summit push alone, officials said.

The man summited around 11:30 a.m. Friday and became disoriented when he turned to descend, finding that belongings left in a boulder field to mark the descent had been picked up, officials said. When his initial descents put him into a scree field, which is an unstable slope composed of rock fragments and other debris, he texted his coworkers who told him he was off course and to climb back up to find the trail.

Shortly before 4 p.m., he texted that he was near the trail, but a strong storm moved through with freezing rain and high winds and he became disoriented and lost cellphone service, the post said.

The search and rescue team got a call about 9 p.m. and sent teams out that searched unsuccessfully until the next morning. They encountered high winds and freezing rain, which made reaching the summit unsafe, officials said. A search helicopter also did not locate the hiker overnight.

On Saturday morning as rescuers from nearly a dozen agencies were starting a large search effort, the hiker called 911 and crews were able to locate him in a gully. He told search and rescue officials that he had fallen at least 20 times on the steep slopes during the storm and, after the last fall, was unable to get back up.

After the man was extracted from the gully, stabilized and evaluated, he was taken to a hospital for further care. The man’s name and extent of his injuries wasn’t released.

“This hiker was phenomenally lucky to have regained cell service when he did, and to still have enough consciousness and wherewithal to call 911,” search and rescue officials said. “Though he was located in a tertiary search area, it would have been some time before teams made it to that location on their own.”