Pikes Descent

Busy SAR weekend.  Saturday afternoon the pager started buzzing with reports of an injured hiker high on Pikes.  Around 5PM the team got the call out.  Drove up to the summit and started heading down to find a deaf climber and his dog.  The Barr Camp caretaker was also dispatched to help search, and he ended up finding the guy above A Frame and pretty far off Barr Trail.  We met up with them near A Frame and began the slog down the hill.  Luckily the climber was not seriously injured and he was able to hike on his own, but he was exhausted so it was slow going.  4.5 hours from the summit to Barr Camp.  Then another 80 minutes to get down to Bob's Road, where we had a vehicle waiting.  My pack weighed about 60 pounds and needless to say when I finally got home just after 5AM I was worked.  The climber and his dog are both OK.

My buddy Josh took this pic, I'm the guy in front.

Not long after I got home we got a request to help Teller County SAR with an injured snowboarder on Little Italy, sort of close to Glen Cove on the Pikes Peak Highway.  I was in no shape to respond to that but luckily we got a good number of folks to help out.  Seems the snowboarder fucked himself up pretty good, quite a few broken bones.  

Later on Sunday the call went out for a lost hiker up on the Academy.  Again, I was in no shape to pull a second all nighter, so I had to pass.  The team located the hiker, but it was awful terrain and they were unable to reach the guy in the dark.  We had contact via phone with the hiker, and he settled in until first light.  Getting myself a good night of sleep, I was on the team that went in to get the guy early Monday morning.  He is fine and he promised he would work on his navigation skills.

This was the first weekend of winter.  The weather was quite mild, especially up high on Pikes.  Had it been colder, things could have been much worse for both rescues I was involved in.

On top of all that I passed my General class HAM exam, got in a 7.5 miler on the Garden trails just before I started hearing about the Pikes mission, and we are dogsitting an 18 month old lab.  Good times.

Low mileage week, though that was due more to recovery from Rocket City than the SAR excuses.

run - 20 miles, 4.5 hours

ride - 19 miles, two hours

hike - 27 miles, 15 hours