This summer, a hiker fell 30 feet, dislocating his femur and tearing open a major artery. Quick action from the Organ Mountain Technical Rescue Squad allowed rescuers to pull off a complicated extraction from a desert ravine—just in the nick of time.

In one of the most involved rescues in Summit County history, volunteers hauled a patient over a ridge and more than 1,500 vertical feet through remote, loose mountain terrain—all just ahead of a looming winter storm.