CDT Hiker Rescued

Here’s what I found on the Archuleta County Facebook page. It runs in reverse chronological order. The comments on the post suggest that his real name is Petar and his trail name is Moonshine, but there’s not a whole lot more.

UPDATE:
Our hiker is safe and is in good health! Flight For Life found the perfect opportunity to quickly load him up and bring him to town where he was Greeted with hot soup and water. What a great outcome!

UPDATE:
GREAT NEWS! Flight For Life out of Durango had an opportunity to fly over the location of the hiker. As they flew over they spotted the hiker on a ridge waving. Flight For Life attempted to land but the snow was too soft to pick him up. At this time the contingency plan is to have the National Guard extract him via hoist.

UPDATE:
Unfortunately the weather isn’t cooperating during the rescue efforts for a distressed hiker on the Continental Divide Trail. At this time Archuleta County Emergency Management has sent personnel to locate a safe staging area for when the weather breaks. The SPOT device hasn’t moved as of 6:45 this morning. Emergency Management was informed that the hiker is experienced, in good physical shape but did not have snowshoes with him.

Around 1 o’clock today Archuleta County Emergency Management received a page for an SOS notification from a “Spot” device sent by a Continental Divide hiker. The Coordinates plot in very difficult terrain. Due to weather in the area helicopters are not available but thanks to Pagosa Air Tours we currently have eyes in the sky to hopefully locate our hiker and scout out the easiest access.

Air drop some snow shoes to the hiker. Ignoring local knowledge is Russian roulette. Glad the hiker is OK. NFS should put a trail closure sign up just like they did for wild fires.

Exuberance over experience was the problem with the PCT in 2017 with that years massive snowpack (~200% of average).   Couldn’t tell these young guys any different.

Almost all ended up bailing that year … maybe flipping back, though storms started that September.  Even those who could successfully navigate through the snow and going upstream significant distances to find safe crossings ran low on food, trudging through the snow.  Besides some close calls, unfortunately two women drowned that year.  Some made it through early, including one middle age French climber with light gear, but he spent his life in the Alps.