Posted: Wednesday, July 22, 2015 12:28 pm | Updated: 4:17 pm, Wed Jul 22, 2015. Mail and Times staff
Chaffee County emergency responders retrieved an injured mountain biker, a 55-year-old Virginia man, July 17 on Alpine Tunnel trail. Their first indication of the accident was through a SPOT device that had been activated at about 2:45 p.m. Undersheriff Derek Bos said SPOT devices relay the GPS coordinates of an emergency, but they provide little other information.
About 20 minutes later a 911 call came in from the St. Elmo general store about an injured cyclist. Responders were briefly confused about whether it was the same person or if they had two accidents. They later found that some passing hikers activated their SPOT device when they came across the injured cyclist and at the same time another cyclist had gone to St. Elmo to report the accident.
Search and Rescue North deployed three all-terrain vehicle teams to search for the cyclist, who Bos said was on the east portal side of Alpine Tunnel.
Bos said the cyclist had fallen about 30 feet down an embankment, injuring his arm and shoulder. He’d also hit his head and was confused, but showed no sign of head injury. The undersheriff said the area the cyclist was in was a couple miles west of Hancock, a ghost town about five miles south of St. Elmo.
A Flight for Life helicopter was staged at the Buena Vista airport, but it was released after rescue crews got to the victim. They transported him with a stokes litter for the 2.5 miles to the trailhead, where he was transported by ambulance.
Bos said the cyclist was in a difficult area to access preventing responders from reaching him until about 5:45 p.m.
Helped hikers lost in bad weather
A search team responded to a 911 call July 20 from two hikers who had become disoriented at 13,500 feet on the traverse between Mount Columbia and Mount Harvard due to inclement weather, limited visibility and lightning, according to a press release from Chaffee County Search and Rescue-North.
One of the hikers was suffering from hypothermia and exhaustion. After contacting the hikers via cell phone, CCSAR-N instructed them to descend directly east into the Frenchman’s Creek drainage.
A hasty team located them at about 11,500 feet in Frenchman’s Creek Drainage and accompanied them down to safety, where they were transported to their vehicle at the North Cottonwood Trailhead. Twelve SAR members responded to the mission.
Rollover accident on the Baldwin Gulch Road
Saturday, CCSAR-N responded to a rollover accident with injuries on the Baldwin Gulch Road near Mount Antero. SAR assisted two members of Chaffee County EMS and a deputy from the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office toward the scene of the accident on ATVs.
On the way up, our team encountered some of the injured subjects being brought down in the vehicles of other people who had been in the area. The rolled vehicle had also been righted and the remaining occupants drove themselves back to the Baldwin Gulch Trailhead for evaluation by EMS and were then released.
Ten SAR members responded to this incident.
Barbecue July 31
Chaffee county Search and Rescue-North will host its second annual fundraiser barbecue beginning at 5 p. m., Friday, July 31 at South Main in Buena Vista.
Tickets are on sale at Boneshaker Cycles and The Trailhead.
