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A team-building event ends in a dramatic rescue operation: an employee is left alone by his colleagues on a four-thousand-meter peak.
Monarch – 15 employees of a company set out on Friday (August 23) for a team-building event to climb the peak of Mount Shavano in the US state of Colorado. But the trip took an unexpected turn: the colleagues left one employee behind and apparently even removed the trail markers. The man became disoriented. A sudden change in the weather made the search for the missing person more difficult.
Alone on four-thousand-meter peak: Strong storm puts hiker’s life in danger
Mount Shavano in Colorado is one of the “Fourteeners,” the mountains in the USA that are over 14,000 feet or around 4,000 meters high. As several US media reported, an employee of the unnamed company was apparently left alone by his colleagues while climbing this mountain. The man hiked at his own pace and lost contact with the group, the report said. Washington Post“One member of the group had to complete the final climb to the summit alone,” confirmed the responsible rescue service Chaffee County Search and Rescue (CCSAR) in a Facebook statement.
This photo shared by rescuers on Facebook shows the rescue of the man who got into trouble on Mount Shavano. © Facebook @Teller County Search and Rescue
The hiker reached the summit alone at around 11:30 am. On the way down, he noticed that his colleagues had, for unknown reasons, removed the markers they had previously placed on the mountainside to show him the way. He then contacted the other hikers and told them where he was. They told him that he was on the wrong path and that he should climb back up the slope to find his way back to the route.
At around 3:50 p.m., the man who was left alone sent his current location again. He had almost found his way back to the official route. But then a storm came with cold rain showers and strong gusts – and suddenly his cell phone reception was gone too.
Colleagues call the emergency services hours later: emergency services find exhausted hiker
When the man still hadn’t returned hours later, the colleagues finally called the emergency services. The rescue services were alerted at around 9 p.m., according to the emergency services’ statement. Two rescue teams and a drone pilot were dispatched immediately. The search lasted the whole night, but strong wind and rain made navigation particularly difficult for the drone.
A helicopter supported the emergency services, but was also unable to locate the missing man. On Saturday morning at around 10:00 a.m., additional forces began the search. At about this time, the missing man had sufficient cell phone reception to make an emergency call and give his location. The exhausted man was rescued and taken to a hospital for further medical treatment.
Hiker fell at least 20 times – and in the end could not get up
The hiker reported to the rescue team that he had fallen at least 20 times on the steep slopes of the mountain. After the last fall, he was unable to get up. “The hiker was very lucky that he had cell phone reception again in time and was still conscious and able to make the emergency call,” says the rescue team’s final report.
The missing man was found in an area that the search team would not have reached until much later without his report. Although the report did not directly indicate that his colleagues had deliberately abandoned the man, rescue workers suspected that the incident “could lead to some unpleasant encounters in the office in the coming days and weeks.”
