About 14 members of La Plata County Search & Rescue began searching for a lost hiker Friday night after getting a 911 call about 4:45 p.m. By 8:30 p.m., they had found him and were bringing him out.
“We had a call from an individual who said he was lost, wet and cold in the Hermosa drainage,” said Butch Knowlton, director of the county’s Office of Emergency Preparedness. “There were 3 to 4 inches of snow in his area, and he could not find the trail.”
About 7:20 p.m., Knowlton said the search teams had made direct voice contact with the lost hiker.
“It’s been snowing hard, very wet, very foggy,” Knowlton said about the conditions. “The precipitation makes it really cold.”
The hiker was on a steep slope about one-half mile north of Clear Creek on the west side of Hermosa Creek.
“He was extremely cold, so they fed him some warm food, got some calories in him and gave him some warm clothes,” Knowlton said. “Ed Zink is waiting at the top of Dutch Creek to bring him out on horseback, because he’s so tired.”
It was a bad night for a search, he said.
“It’s a real testament to these searchers and Ed and Waterfall Ranch,” Knowlton said, “that they came out when the weather was so wet and cold.”
abutler@durangoherald.com
