The experienced ski tourers were in the trees at about 8,400 feet. Rescuers also are looking for a snowmobiler swept away in Conejos County.
search and rescue
Posted inOpinion Columns
Zornio: Colorado recreators should buy a CORSAR card to keep search and rescue efforts free
But a transfer of search and rescue fund oversight to Colorado Parks and Wildlife makes it tougher to provide reimbursement for local teams
Posted inOutdoors
Two runners have gone missing in remote Colorado mountains, leading to push for more education
Fitness is not enough to stay safe in remote mountains where risks are amplified
Posted inEnergy, News, Outdoors
Colorado’s energy czar, wife are recovering after a 1,000-foot fall while climbing in Rocky Mountain National Park
Will Toor was thinking he was at the end. He was pretty sure his leg was broken. He was shivering uncontrollably in the snow high in the mountains. He’d watched his injured wife limp away to get help two hours earlier. Every few minutes he’d holler for help. Then, in the distance, he saw two […]
Posted inNews, Outdoors, Wildfire
How to plan a hike during wildfire season in Colorado
The forecast called for blue skies and temperatures in the mid 70s — a “perfect day for hiking,” some would say — when the Plumtaw fire sparked last month north of Pagosa Springs. Conditions were also pretty good for a fast-moving fire to rush through the heavy forest toward a popular trail that guides backpackers, […]
Posted inNews, Outdoors, Technology
“We can’t broadcast through a mountain”: Digital dead zones getting in the way of Colorado’s first responders
BAYFIELD — There’s a digital dead zone in Fire Chief Bruce Evans’ 282-square-mile district in southwest Colorado, right up where the Upper Pine River Fire Protection District brushes against wildland and national forest. No cell coverage. No internet access. Even the radio goes quiet. For Sean Caffrey, at the Crested Butte fire department, signal cuts […]
Posted inNews, Outdoors
An overdue Colorado hiker may not have picked up rescuers’ phone calls because he didn’t recognize the number
LEADVILLE — A Colorado search and rescue team is urging people who are late in returning from the outdoors to answer their phones if they get repeated calls from an unknown number after spending hours looking for a hiker who never knew they were the subject of a search. According to the Lake County team, […]
Posted inNews, Outdoors, Outsider
When people die in Colorado’s outdoors, sometimes friends are the ones to find them
A week after Vaughn Fetzer was reported missing on Blanca Peak, the fourth highest mountain in Colorado, friends found his body in an unstable area. Rescuers spent several days in freezing temperatures searching near vertical cliffs and scree fields but suspended the mission after a search team member was injured by falling rock in a […]
Posted inNews, Newsletters, Outdoors, Outsider
Stress threatens Colorado search and rescue teams as calls for help climb during coronavirus
As 17 men and women bored into the cement-like snow, even using chainsaws to grind into the ice, an avalanche released behind them, burying their exit road. “That really showed us how reactive the snowpack was — just riddled with uncertainty and you really just didn’t know,” said Leo Lloyd, a 36-year veteran of La […]
Posted inNews, Outdoors
Avalanche-trained dog locates body of snowmobiler killed in massive northern Colorado slide
Search and rescue teams on Wednesday used an avalanche-search dog to find the body of a snowmobiler buried in a large slide in the Never Summer Mountains of northern Colorado. His death brings the total number of people killed in avalanches in Colorado so far this season to 11, equal to the number who died […]