FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Another Hiker Requires Rescue Near Telluride
Contact: Susan Lilly, Public Information Officer 970-729-2028
susanl@sanmiguelsheriff.org
August 31, 2017 -- (Telluride, CO) – Deputies and Search and Rescue volunteer personnel performed another SAR mission for a lost hiker near Telluride Wednesday night. It was the second such rescue in one week in the same area off the Wasatch Trail near La Junta Basin.
Deputies responded to a call at approximately 8pm Wednesday evening from the father of the hiker, a twenty-five year old male from Washington, D.C. He stated his son was alone hiking the Wasatch trail near Telluride and was lost.
Deputies and SAR volunteers located and escorted the man safely down the trail in a mission that took more than 6 hours. The hiker was mildly dehydrated and cold, but he did not require medical attention.
The man told Deputies that he and his father were camping in Telluride’s Town Park and had another camper suggest the hike.
While young and fit, the man was not an experienced backcountry hiker and was ill-prepared for what could have been an overnight spent at nearly 13,000 feet in the wilderness in temperatures that were forecasted to be below freezing.
Sheriff Bill Masters said he is thankful his team and the hiker are safe, but he emphasized how important it is that people be prepared for backcountry emergencies, “It does not take much for a hike in the wilderness to turn into an emergency, and an even more critical situation if you are forced into spending the night before you can be rescued.”
The mission was completed after 2am Thursday morning. “Our SAR volunteers are incredible. They drop everything, leave their families, perform demanding physical rescues and then go to their jobs the next day sleep deprived. When you see a SAR member, please join me in thanking them,” Sheriff Masters said.
The San Miguel County Search and Rescue (SAR) covers approximately 1,200 square miles ranging from high desert at an altitude of 5,000 feet to high alpine at an altitude in excess of 14,000 feet. SAR covers everything from lost hikers, technical rock rescues, helicopter extractions and avalanche rescues.
###
The San Miguel Sheriff’s Office, located in Telluride, Colorado and established in 1883, serves 7,800 residents and countless visitors across the 1,288 square miles of San Miguel County. Sheriff Bill Masters has been serving as the county’s elected Sheriff since 1980.
