AFTER MAJOR UPTICK IN SUMMER CALLS, LAKE COUNTY SAR PREPARED FOR A SECOND BUSY SEASON

by | Feb 26, 2021 | News

Hannah Harn, Ark Valley Voice, Feb 26, 2021 (Nice Truck!) As the COVID-19 pandemic continued and spread during the summer of 2020, more and more people found themselves looking at new options for recreation; heading from the city to the mountains for outdoors fun. However, many of these new hikers found themselves unprepared for the peaks ahead of them. While the types of calls remained consistent, there was a major spike in the number of search and rescue calls for help. For Lake County Search and Rescue, (SAR) the bulk of their 2020 calls came between May and September when they’d sometimes get two or three calls a week. John Holm, President of Lake County Search and Rescue (SAR), says the spike in calls wasn’t entirely unexpected. “Everyone had cabin fever with shutdowns in the spring, but I don’t think any of us expected it to get that busy,” he explains. “Primarily, it was lack of motivation, lack of preparedness, that sort of thing. So we would hike up to them, feed them, give them some water and motivation and walk them out.” One of the major contributors Holm sees is the restriction of travel, which has led to more people recreating closer to home. “More Coloradans are going to know about fourteeners, specifically Elbert, the highest one,” he says. “They’re going to be more likely to come up with people from out of state who are just going to throw the dart at the map and say, ‘hey let’s go there.’ People from out of state who plan to come and hike Elbert are going to plan to do it...

Search & Rescue escorts hikers out of Browns Canyon

by | Feb 18, 2021 | News, Previous Missions

Max R. Smith, Chaffee County Times, Feb 17, 2021 As temperatures dipped rapidly Saturday evening, Chaffee County Search & Rescue-North and a Chaffee County Sheriff’s deputy were called to Browns Canyon National Monument to escort a group of hikers back to the trailhead. According to Search & Rescue’s Facebook page, rescue volunteers were paged out to Browns Canyon at 5:50 p.m. Saturday for a report of a group of hikers who had become disoriented and could not find their way back to the trailhead. A sheriff’s deputy was able to escort part of the group out, and a Search & Rescue-North hasty team met the remaining hikers who had become separated from the main group. All parties were safely out of the field by 7:45 p.m. “With single-digit temperatures and a winter storm rolling in, we are thankful for a short and successful mission,” the post...

Hiker spots boy, 11, missing along Arkansas River

by | Jan 15, 2021 | News, Previous Missions

Max R. Smith, Chaffee County Times reporter, Jan 14, 2021 A search for a missing 11-year-old boy along the banks of the Arkansas River east of Buena Vista yesterday afternoon ended when a hiker spotted the boy walking safely along the river. “There was a family visiting from Texas, so they were out of town, and he had left about 12:30 p.m., and about an hour had gone by and he hadn’t come back,” said Buena Vista Police chief Dean Morgan. The boy, Josiah Carter, likes to explore, but being absent for that amount of time in an unfamiliar town led his family to contact the police. The call came in at around 1:30 p.m., and Morgan estimates that around 2:30, Carter was found by a Chaffee County Fire Protection District searcher following a tip from a woman walking along the river. “Usually when we start a search like that we throw out a quick dragnet, check some areas he might be, and when that didn’t reveal anything we decided pretty quickly to get some more resources involved,” Morgan said. Chaffee County Search & Rescue-North, Chaffee County Fire Protection District, Buena Vista Fire Department and Chaffee County Sheriff’s deputies were called in to assist, and an incident command post was established at BVPD. “We canvassed the neighborhoods in South Main, which was the area he was last seen, and got the word out to a lot of the businesses and used social media as well to get his picture and everything out there,” Morgan said. In addition, Morgan said that Colorado State Patrol were on the lookout for the boy,...

Search and Rescue called out to three missions

by | Aug 28, 2020 | News, Previous Missions

  A Flight For Life helicopter lands above treeline on Mount Yale to rescue an injured hiker . Max R. Smith, Chaffee County Times reporter, August 26, 2020  Chaffee County Search & Rescue-North conducted three missions last weekend to assist hikers who had injured themselves hiking in the Sawatch Range. According to reports on CCSAR-N’s Facebook page, rescuers were paged out at 11 a.m., Saturday, Aug. 22, with a report of a hiker who had fallen approximately 100 feet near 13,800 feet elevation on Huron Peak, sustaining a head injury. Bystanders, including an emergency room physician and an emergency medical technician, assisted the hiker while CCSAR-N and Lake County Search & Rescue teams mobilized to the site. A Flight for Life Colorado helicopter was able to find a landing zone about a mile from the hiker in Huron Basin. The hiker was taken down to the helicopter and flown to Summit County for medical care at around 2:20 p.m. On the way back to the CCSAR-N bay at 2:40, a second call came in regarding a hiker with a broken hip about a mile up Browns Creek trail in the area of Mount Antero. The subject of the mission was carried on a wheeled litter to a Chaffee County EMS ambulance. CCSAR-N was assisted in this mission by CCSAR-South. All team members were out of the field by 5 p.m. The next day, at 12:50 p.m., rescue teams were paged out to Mount Yale for a report of a hiker who had fallen and badly injured her leg, knee and face at about 12,800 feet. “Her companions and other...

Authorities find body west of West Apostle Peak

by | Jul 30, 2020 | News, Previous Missions

The Mountain Mail, July 30, 2020 Initially identified as Terry Pann, 60 of Nathrop, the body of a man was found at about 1 p.m. today, Chaffee County Sheriff John Spezze reported. “Chaffee County Search and Rescue located the body of a deceased male west of West Apostle Peak,” Spezze wrote in a press release. Search and rescue have been searching for Pann for the past five days after he was reported overdue after hiking in the Ice Mountain Area in northern Chaffee County. Chaffee County Coroner will transport Pann to Salida and an autopsy will be performed to make a positive identification. Search efforts have been hampered due to inclement weather for the past four days, Spezze wrote; however, the weather broke today and numerous resources were in place to do a much more intense search. Chaffee County North and South, Park County and El Paso County search and rescues, Summit County Rescue Group, Cañon City Helitak, Department of Fire Prevention and Control Multi Mission Aircraft and Flight for Life Colorado were involved in the search today. Reach Air Ambulance has also assisted several times over the past several...

Massive search locates missing 4-year-old near Four Elk

by | May 29, 2020 | News, Previous Missions

by Chaffee County Times Staff, May 29, 2020 The Chaffee County Communications Center received a call of a missing 4-year-old girl May 29 who had wandered away from a residence in the Four Elk Subdivision. The Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office immediately responded and emergency and search personnel were called, according to a press release issued by Chaffee County Sheriff John Spezze late Friday morning. A massive search began immediately. After nearly 2 hours of searching, the girl was located over a mile from where she was last seen. “She was re-united with her very happy parents soon after she was located,” Spezze said. Agencies responding and assisting were the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office, Chaffee County Search and Rescue North, Chaffee County Search and Rescue South, Chaffee County EMS, Chaffee Fire, Buena Vista Police Department, Colorado State Patrol, Salida Police Department, Department of Corrections Tracking Team, Colorado Parks and Reach Air Medical. “This is so important to recognize these many agencies who responded immediately as this once again confirms the commitment of our First Responder group to each other and to our community,” Spezze said. “A huge thank...