Colorado search and rescue officials say a Saturday morning rescue on a 14,230-foot mountain "might cause some awkward encounters at the office in the coming days and weeks." The incident happened on Mt. Shavano in the San Isabel National Forest, where 15 co-workers set out on a team-building retreat that took a turn for the worse. Chaffee County Search and Rescue said in a statement that the group departed from the Blanks Cabin Trailhead at sunrise on Friday and split in two, reports ABC News: One group summitted, while the other stopped at the mountain's saddle area then turned around. But one worker was apparently left to reach the summit on his own.
He managed it at 11:30am, and rescue officials say "he became disoriented" as he started to descend. The colleagues who had gone before him compounded matters by collecting belongings they had left in a boulder field to signal the right path. He ended up in "the steep boulder and scree field on the northeast slopes toward Shavano Lake," and when he managed to share his location with coworkers via a pin-drop, they told him to return to the top and then take the correct trail down. He finally made it to that trail around 4pm, per a subsequent pin drop.
Then "a strong storm passed through the area with freezing rain and high winds, and he again became disoriented, losing his cell phone signal as well." His coworkers reported him missing at 9pm; rescuers searched through the night with difficulty, reports Fox News. On Saturday morning, the man once again had cell service and reported his location to 911. Rescuers found him, and he has been hospitalized, reported to be stable. "He reported ... falling at least 20 times on the steep slopes," per the statement, and said he could not get up after his final fall. "This hiker was phenomenally lucky to have regained cell service when he did, and to still have enough consciousness and wherewithal to call 911." (More hiking stories.)
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