Hiker's 11-Hour Rescue Was 'Terrifying'—for the Rescuers

A hiker in Colorado owes his life to a friend's quick thinking—and a simple belt—after a dangerous fall on a mountain near Buena Vista. The group was about 10,000 feet up on North Sheep Mountain, a steep, trail-less peak with challenging, rocky terrain, when one of them slipped and tumbled about 200 feet down the mountain, suffering multiple head injuries and coming to rest head-down on a precarious slope, reports Outside. With the injured hiker at risk of sliding even farther, a friend took off his belt and used it to tie the injured man to a fallen tree, buying critical time until help could arrive late Sunday afternoon. Chaffee County Search and Rescue North (CCSAR-N) said the SOS call, received just after sunset, triggered a risky mission that stretched through the night.

Rescuers split into two teams: one climbed up to the group with ropes and supplies, while the other waited below with a rescue litter. "There was rock falling all night long from the team trying to get him down," CCSAR-N member Shane Bumgarner tells Outside. "People would scream 'rock!' and in the dark you'd hear these boulders slam into trees next to us ... It was terrifying." The injured hiker was ultimately lowered 1,600 feet in the dark amid near freezing temperatures, per CBS News. He was finally loaded into an ambulance nearly 11 hours after the rescue began. Bumgarner credited the group with carrying essentials, including a communication device, but noted the accident may have been caused by the group's lack of knowledge about the difficult mountain.