Pikes Peak rescue of hikers this past Sat

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Oldskool70
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Pikes Peak rescue of hikers this past Sat

Post by Oldskool70 »

Considering the traffic, I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often on Pikes Peak.

http://gazette.com/update-lost-hikers-r ... le/1553694" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As usual, I have more questions than answers based on this article... :-k
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Re: Pikes Peak rescue of hikers this past Sat

Post by KentonB »

I certainly don't want to pass judgement without knowing all the circumstances... and it's always possible the reporter got the story wrong, but it sounds like they were uninjured, could see the trail they were supposed to be on, and ended up walking all the way back anyway. I'm missing something here.
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Re: Pikes Peak rescue of hikers this past Sat

Post by Oldskool70 »

I wonder if they just didn't like the slope they just came up from...If that second photo is of the actual rescue I didn't see poles or ice ax for self arrest. They might have just got cold feet...so-to-speak. I was up on the north slopes ( not above tree line though) on a training run that day & the weather was perfect. I don't get it either.
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Oldskool70
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Re: Pikes Peak rescue of hikers this past Sat

Post by Oldskool70 »

Oldskool70 wrote:I wonder if they just didn't like the slope they just came up from...If that second photo is of the actual rescue I didn't see poles or ice ax for self arrest. They might have just got cold feet...so-to-speak. I was up on the north slopes ( not above tree line though) on a training run that day & the weather was perfect. I don't get it either.
I misspoke. Poles for hiking & ice ax for self arrest (Poles for arrest- Not good idea =; )
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Re: Pikes Peak rescue of hikers this past Sat

Post by kman »

Oldskool70 wrote:Considering the traffic, I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often on Pikes Peak.
Actually, it happens more often than you think...you just don't hear about the majority of them. One of the first things I find myself asking the caretakers at Barr Camp during my frequent visits there is "hey, gone on any rescues lately?" The answer (particularly when there is snow on the mountain) is usually "yup!"
As a matter of fact, there is another "rescue" going on today. From the El Paso County Search And Rescue twitter feed: Tweets
Follow
1h
epcsar @epcsar
Subject contact. Working on an evacuation at this time.
Expand
4h
epcsar @epcsar
EPCSAR responding to lost hikers near Pikes Peak Summit.
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Re: Pikes Peak rescue of hikers this past Sat

Post by aholle88 »

I would say a lot of it is preparation. People just think you can go climb it without knowing anything. When my friend and I were coming down Barr Trail after snowboarding the east face, there were 2 people heading up in shorts and they asked us... "Hey, did you guys need to use those snowshoes you have?" It's like..duh, did you not look at the mountain before you decided to climb it? These guys didn't even have microspikes or yak traks, and this was back in early to mid May when there was all the snow. This forum and website helps a ton, and most people who are somewhat serious about it will be smart enough to look things up here and other websites..but for those that just go blindly into hikes, they are asking for it and putting other people in harms way (doing SARs missions in mid-day when the storms are coming in strong).
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Re: Pikes Peak rescue of hikers this past Sat

Post by jrs1965 »

aholle88 wrote:I would say a lot of it is preparation. People just think you can go climb it without knowing anything. When my friend and I were coming down Barr Trail after snowboarding the east face, there were 2 people heading up in shorts and they asked us... "Hey, did you guys need to use those snowshoes you have?" It's like..duh, did you not look at the mountain before you decided to climb it? These guys didn't even have microspikes or yak traks, and this was back in early to mid May when there was all the snow. This forum and website helps a ton, and most people who are somewhat serious about it will be smart enough to look things up here and other websites..but for those that just go blindly into hikes, they are asking for it and putting other people in harms way (doing SARs missions in mid-day when the storms are coming in strong).
I doubt it would help much but maybe about 1-2% of these folks that might actually use a Barr Trail gpx file or route description if one existed on this website. El Paso County SAR and the Barr Camp caretakers will always have plenty of work on this route rescuing the totally unprepared...
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Re: Pikes Peak rescue of hikers this past Sat

Post by tenpins »

epscar responds to 150-ish missions on a normal year running the gamut of mission types. maybe like 3 of them make the news. I speculate the use of the FFL lift ticket got the media's attention. the caretakers at barr camp have always been a huge help. the advantage of having them go from barr as opposed to deploying from town is obvious.
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Re: Pikes Peak rescue of hikers this past Sat

Post by Air Squared »

How do you get lost on a mountain that has a paved road all the way to the top?
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Re: Pikes Peak rescue of hikers this past Sat

Post by geoffirons »

Having served on the SAR teams which share responsibility for the mountain, I can assure you that people get lost, and injured, on Pikes Peak. Problems with the road for a lost climber: 1- finding the road (not everyone gets "lost" on the summit); 2- the road does not go anywhere near either of the two primary trailheads, and it is 19 miles back to the entrance gate; 3- it is illegal to hike the road; in an emergency it would make sense to hike it anyway in hopes that law enforcement would pick you up, but many/most emergencies happen after the road is closed.
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Re: Pikes Peak rescue of hikers this past Sat

Post by djkest »

Air Squared wrote:How do you get lost on a mountain that has a paved road all the way to the top?
The paved road isn't on the same area of the mountain as the trail is. However this story does seem a bit odd on the surface. If they were uninjured I am wondering why they didn't attempt to rejoin the trail that they could see. Plus the mountain is very large.
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