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.
When Mike Marr’s ski hit a submerged rock and failed to release, he was left immobile and in excruciating pain on the slopes of Colorado’s highest mountain. Just as night fell, Lake County Search and Rescue arrived to begin a complex winter rescue on skis.
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.
This summer, Avi Ruben was climbing a steep couloir when he slipped, started sliding—and realized he had no idea how to self-arrest. Just as panic set in, he heard his radio come to life: It was his partner, giving him step-by-step instructions.
On June 29, 2020, Taylor Gibler fell about 30 feet into a crevasse while descending Mt. Baker.
Kaspar Podgorski should have died. Instead, he was left with a broken femur at the base of a cliff with wet, technical fourth-class terrain separating him from the road. A team of volunteer climbers and rescuers rallied together to get him out.
On July 2, 2020, Zach Eiten survived a sudden torrent of rockfall while climbing Montana's Granite Peak. He was left stranded with a broken foot, over ten miles from the trailhead and with storms on their way.