An injured Colorado man spent a night alone atop a mountain summit after being separated from his co-workers during a work retreat.
The tension in the office could be thick enough to slice with a knife next week. According to the NY Post, the rescued hiker was injured, and weathered a storm atop a mountain, after being abandoned by his coworkers. The man was one of 15 office mates who set out to summit Mount Shavano on Friday.
According to the Chafee County Search and Rescue South, the hiker had summited the mountain around 11:30 AM on Friday. It was on his attempted descent that he became disoriented, as members of the group ahead of him had picked up belongings that were intended to be used as markers for the return trip down the mountain. Reportedly, the lone hiker found himself on a steep slope. He became concerned and sent a pin of his location to his coworkers. It was then that those coworkers told the lone hiker he had made a misstep.
Hiker Abandoned by Co-Workers and Forced to Spend Night Alone on a Mountain
Around 3:50 PM on Friday, the lone hiker had made it back to the trail to restart his descent. It was then that he shared another pin of his location with his co-workers. But, as fate would have it, a storm hammered the mountain, and obviously the hiker, with freezing rain and high winds at about the same time. Moreover, the hiker lost cell service as a result of the storm. Likewise, the already distressed man became even more disoriented.
Around 9 PM Friday, search and rescue teams were alerted of the man's absence from the base of the mountain. Search and rescue teams began their search that night, but were unable to reach the summit due to the ongoing storm. It was Saturday morning, once the man regained cell service, that he called 911, and was eventually rescued.
The lone hiker said he had fallen over 2o times during his attempted descent. He continued on to mention his disorientation, and an inability to get up after his last fall.
Rescuers said the hiker was lucky to have regained cell service when he did. Without such a stroke of good fortune, the rescue would have taken much longer.
