The
Crestone Eagle, July 2008:
Injured climber rescued from Challenger Peak
by Mary Lowers
Saguache County Search and Rescue team successfully
brought a seriously injured climber down from the snowfields
below Challenger Peak on Sunday, June 23. Two helicopter flights
to the landing area near Willow Lake and the hard work of
ten rescue team members got the fifty-two year-old Littleton
man off the mountain safely.
The call from a cell phone came into Search & Rescue
about 3pm on Sunday. The victim was hiking with two other
people and according to team member Ben Brack, “on descent
from Challenger Peak while attempting to glissad (slide down
the field on your feet using your heels to brake) on a snow
field without ice axes and other proper equipment. The forty-five
degree angle of the snowfield, and a misstep, increased his
speed and the man lost control and came down on his left hip
breaking it. He also suffered from multiple contusions and
abrasions.”
Brack said that the victim’s friends immediately moved
him off the snowfield onto a dry rock area. They went down
to their base camp and got him warm clothing and blankets,
but he was still suffering from the early stages of hypothermia
when the initial six rescue team members were ferried up by
helicopter. Brack, who had hiked up 1500 feet to the man’s
position, “rewarmed him and stabilized him.”
After the victim was stable, “the team packaged him
on a backboard, immobilized his leg and wrapped him in a skeg
or stretcher that’s a sled. Then we began the decent,
which was pretty dangerous. We started to descend about 7:30pm
and the chopper had to leave at 9:30pm. We didn’t know
if they could fly him out at all,” said Brack. The rescue
team maneuvered the skeg over two snow fields, boulder fields
and tundra.
When they reached the landing area at the top of Willow Lake,
they called Saguache County Sheriff Mike Norris who arranged
for a Flight for Life helicopter to the scene. Ben said, “They
had night vision equipment to direct landing on the boulder
field.” In seven minutes they had him loaded and were
back in the air.
The victim will be ok and is safely home. Brack says that
cooperative weather, the luck of a Forest Service EMT being
on scene and not having a more severely injured victim contributed
to the successful rescue. The victim and his friends did several
things right; they were in a group, had extra equipment and
clothing, and they called early and stayed in place. “The
thing that helped out the most was the cooperative and positive
attitude of the victim and his friends,” Brack said.
When going up into the wilderness, he recommends a fully charged
cell phone that you turn off to hold the charge so it will
be ready for a potential emergency.
Saguache County Search and Rescue team members Ben Brack,
Josh Wilfong, Marcio Paes Barretto, Steve Wilfong, Ivan Lakish,
Chris Botz, with assistance from Jim Vanderpool, Dan Haynes
and Saguache County Sheriff Deputy Nick Tolsam, magnificently
managed the rescue with less than half of the recommended
crew.
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