Chaffee County Sheriff Press Release – 10-Aug-14
A man hiking on Mount Yale with his sixteen-year-old daughter was assisted off the mountain by volunteers from the county’s search and rescue team during a nighttime mission Friday evening. Neither the man nor his young daughter was injured during the incident.
Shortly before 7:30pm Friday, the sheriff’s office communications center received a call from the man, Steve Devries, age and residency unknown at this writing, who said he was calling from a satellite phone from just below the summit of Mount Yale. He told the dispatcher that he and his daughter were having difficulty descending the trail. His daughter was beginning to panic because her tennis shoes were unsuited to the slick terrain. Both had warm jackets and food and water, but were otherwise unprepared to spend the night in the open.
By 8:30pm, the two hikers were on a rock base above tree line at about 12,355 feet. Devries told the dispatcher that he and his daughter would be unable to continue as darkness increased. The dispatcher instructed them to stay on the trail and to halt in place to await the arrival of SAR volunteers once they could no longer see the trail. A few minutes later the two halted their descent due to darkness.
Finally, just before 10pm, SAR volunteers reached the man and his daughter. They were both tired and cold, but otherwise unharmed. With the assistance of the rescuers they finally reached the Denny Creek trailhead parking lot at midnight.
