Search and rescue personnel embarked on a harrowing mission Sunday morning to retrieve a hiker who fractured his ankle on Windom Peak. The effort required a helicopter extraction at 13,200 feet.

“This was like our gazelle team,” said Ron Corkish, La Plata County Search and Rescue president and mission coordinator.

Corkish said crews were alerted a hiker was in trouble around 9 p.m. Saturday by a DeLorme GPS signal – a “GPS on steroids” which tracks the exact location of hikers, has a “SOS signal” and allows them to send texts back and forth.

Through the device, local rescue crews learned a 30-year old man was descending Windom Peak around 3 p.m. Saturday when he got his foot stuck in a rock and twisted it, resulting in a fracture.

Corkish said the injured man was given the GPS device by another hiker descending the 14,088-foot mountain. The hiker was unable to stay with the injured man.

By 9 p.m., the injured hiker, who Corkish did not identify but said was from out of town, decided his injury was too severe, and he activated the emergency response trigger. Corkish added that five other “good Samaritans” stayed with the injured man through the night.

“That’s the kind of people that are up there,” Corkish said. “You had a good Sam say: ‘Hey, I can’t stay and help, but I’ll give you this $400 unit,’ and five others who spent the night with this lad and communicated with us.”

At 8:30 a.m. Sunday, a helicopter owned by the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad flew rescue members into the Chicago Basin in the remote Weminuche Wilderness.

The helicopter landed about 900 feet below the injured hiker, and medics and rescue personnel hiked up over snow and rock fields to reach the 30-year-old man.

The helicopter with the injured hiker landed at Rockwood Station and the hiker arrived at Mercy Regional Medical Center around 1 p.m. Sunday – ending the search effort in about four hours. Corkish said he is in stable condition.

To add to the team’s undertaking, Corkish said rescue crews had to hike down from Windom Peak to Needleton to catch the last D&SNG train. At 5:15 p.m. Sunday, he said crews made it on time.

“That’s an amazing feat, with all their gear,” he said.

The rescuing agencies included La Plata County Search and Rescue, San Juan County Search and Rescue, Durango Fire Rescue and the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. The effort was in coordination with the U.S. Forest Service.

jromeo@durangoherald.com

This article has been updated to correct that a DeLorme is a GPS system.