California father, son stuck overnight on Colorado 14er

CBS News

6 hours ago

A California man and his teenage son spent a frigid night near the top of a Colorado mountain after rescuers declined to undertake a risky helicopter operation.
The pair, dressed in cotton pants and shirts, huddled with two rescuers just below the summit of 14,271-foot Quandary Peak near Breckenridge in below-freezing temperatures through Thursday night.
Around 7 a.m. Friday, a Gypsum-based Blackhawk helicopter from the National Guard swooped in during calm conditions and carried off the father and son on the end of a cable line.
The rescue operation took 15 hours.
Friday's sunrise illuminates the rocky perch where a California man, his teenage son, and two members of the Summit County Rescue Group camped overnight just below the summit of Quandary Peak in below-freezing temperatures. The man and his son became "cliffed out" while ascending Quandary's more difficult west ridge the day before.
Helen Rowe/Summit County Rescue Group
"I saw them when they got out of that helicopter," said Charles Pitman, a mission coordinator with Summit County Rescue Group. "They were very appreciative. Fortunately, they're going to be OK. But people, when they choose routes, they need to do more than see a line on a map and say, 'I'll do that.'"
The man, in his mid-50s, and his son set out at 10 a.m. to summit Quandary, one of the easier high peaks among the "14ers" in the state. But, Pitman said, the man and son decided to hike to the peak's more difficult west ridge rather the simpler standard route to the summit up the mountain's east ridge.
It's an issue many times every summer hiking season. And the missions to remove people from the west ridge of Quandary usually last through the night.
"It's can be difficult and it can be life-threatening," Pitman said. "The people who get in that situation are not climbers. They're hikers who've misjudged the route."
A Blackhawk helicopter from the High Altitude Army National Guard Training Site (HAATS) in Gypsy as it approached the western ridge of Quandary Peak on Friday morning.
Helen Rowe/Summit County Rescue Group
Thursday night, the man and his son called 9-1-1 in the late afternoon. They were caught on the rocky ridge, unable to negotiate the rest of the steep scramble to the summit and unwilling to retrace their steps over the narrow ridge they'd put behind them. They crouched behind an outcropping to escape the increasing winds. The father's phone was thankfully keeping a charge and rescuers maintained good contact with him. But the son, Pitman said, was already showing signs of hypothermia.
"We've seen this before. It won't be the last time," Pitman said. "In past years, people have died on this route. We can't go up, you can't go down, you can't go left, you can't go right. And there you are."
Helen Rowe/Summit County Rescue Group
Friday evening, before the wind worsened, a Flight For Life helicopter dropped a team of four rescuers on the uppermost saddle (flat area) on Quandary's east ridge. Two of the rescuers hiked over the summit and began to downclimb in the dark toward the father and son. The rescuers stopped, however, fearful of kicking rocks onto them.
Eventually, very carefully and very slowly the team members made the descent to the father and son. But by then, the Blackhawk crew decided flying the ridge at night with high winds was unsafe. So, the two rescuers broke out extra clothing and a protective tarp and all four "hunkered down," as Pitman said, for an uncomfortable overnight stay at elevation.
Pitman noted the many online resources and publications available to anyone wishing to tackle an ascent in Colorado's high country. A moderate amount of research would've told the father and son the degrees of difficulty between the different paths to Quandary's summit. And number of missions taken on by Summit County Rescue Group is already half what the agency averages every year, and the crews are entering the busiest time of year.
But he's not complaining.
"Yeh, I was up all night. But you look back and these people are OK. That's not always the case."
Vail Mountain Rescue Group and the Summit County Sheriff's Office assisted Summit County in the operation. The Blackhawk came from the High-Altitude Army National Guard Aviation Training Site (HAATS).