Sara Sandstrom-Kobi, Peak to Peak. Shortly after 8 a.m. on June 11, 2020, the Boulder County Communications Center received notification from a family member that an emergency alert from a handheld GPS device had been activated by their son. A male, 22 years old, was injured after sustaining a fall while climbing. With assistance from his parents, rescuers were able to receive the coordinates for where the injured climber was located.

The climber fell while doing a technical climb up the Juliet couloir, a steep, narrow gully, on Mt. Neva. He fell approximately 400 meters down the snowfield, hit a grouping of rocks and sustained serious injuries to his lower body.

Search and rescue teams were sent in from the ground, as well as from the air, using Flight for Life Colorado. Once rescuers reached the injured climber, they were able to tend to his injuries until the Colorado Army National Guard arrived and completed a hoist rescue into a Black Hawk helicopter. He was flown to the Boulder Airport where an AMR ambulance was waiting and then transported to a local hospital.

Although he was climbing by himself, he did have proper safety equipment with him, including the handheld GPS device and an orange rescue blanket, both of which helped rescuers to be able to quickly locate him. The rescue took approximately four hours to complete.

The following agencies helped with this rescue: Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, Rocky Mountain Rescue Group, Nederland Fire, American Medical Response, Flight for Life Colorado and the Colorado Army National Guard. This rescue was successful because of the professional coordination between the responding agencies. They train together for these situations and the results on this day were successful.  

Rob Savoye with Nederland Fire says, “I can only appreciate the massive training multiple agencies do to prepare for a rescue like this. They don’t happen that often up here, but when they do, everyone has to do their part as efficiently as possible like we do this all the time together.”

These first responders work in difficult situations and conditions to serve our community and save lives. 

The associated Boulder County Sheriff’s Office case number is: 20-2565.

(Originally published in the June 18, 2020, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)