Hiker on an office retreat left behind by coworkers on mountain, rescued the next day

A man who was left behind on a Colorado mountain while on hiking retreat with coworkers was rescued by emergency services. 

The man, who has not been named, was part of a group of 15 people hiking Mount Shavano, a 14,000-foot mountain in the southern Rocky Mountains. All 15 were coworkers participating in an office retreat and were taking the “standard route” to the top of the mountain. That route is an 11-mile hike, according to AllTrails, and almost nine hours to complete on average. The group had started the trek at sunrise on Aug. 23. 

“In what might cause some awkward encounters at the office in the coming days and weeks,” the man was left to “complete his final summit push alone,” Chaffee County Search and Rescue said on social media. 

The man summited the mountain around 11:30 a.m., later than the rest of his coworkers, and became disoriented while descending. Belongings he had left to mark his path had been moved by another group of hikers, and he made a wrong turn into a steep boulder field on the mountain’s northeast slope. He texted his location to his coworkers, Chaffee County Search and Rescue said, who told him he had the wrong route and attempted to give him directions. 

The man continued hiking, sending another pin with an updated location to his coworkers around 3:30 p.m. Shortly after sending it, a strong storm with freezing rain and high winds tore through the area, again disorienting the man. He also lost cell phone signal, the search and rescue team said. 

At around 9 p.m., an overdue hiker was reported to the Chaffee County Search and Rescue team. Two teams and a drone pilot were dispatched from the same trailhead the group had begun their hike. The teams focused on the area near where the man had sent his second location from. The stormy weather complicated rescue conditions, especially for the drone operator, limiting the search, officials said. A helicopter was deployed, but did not detect any activity on the mountain. 

By 9 a.m. the next morning, after 12 hours of searching, there was still no sign of the missing man, and a second, more extensive search with assistance from multiple rescue teams around the region began.  

As the search expanded, the man “regained enough cell service to make a call to 911,” the Chaffee County Search and Rescue team said. He reported being “very disoriented” and having fallen at least 20 times. He said he was “unable to get back up” after the last fall. 

The call allowed rescuers to confirm the man’s location and focus their energies on “reaching and extracting” him, the Chaffee County Search and Rescue team said. The rescue was a complicated process that included using ropes to enter the gully where the man had fallen. 

The man was transported to a local hospital for treatment. The Chaffee County Search and Rescue team did not provide information on his condition. The organization warned that people should never hike alone.