SAR on Blanca 7/10 and 7/11

[Justin9]

Wondering if anybody has any information on this. When we arrived to lake come road on Friday we saw search and rescue and they said that there had been a 911 call from someone on the mountain with a broken leg. We saw headlamps on the ridge that night and a flight for life helicopter doing laps and even checking us out on the traverse on Saturday. When we hiked out I spoke with several SAR members and they said that they searched but couldn't locate anyone and that these search was called off. Hoping everyone is okay and that someone can shed some light on the situation.

[Traveler]

I saw the SAR guys in orange on Saturday (they were dressed a lot like hunters). They came up the brutal road in a lifted 1980s Chevy pickup (K30?) that made it all the way to the trailhead. In talking with them they didn't seem to know what peak the injured person(s) were on. They hiked up towards Ellingwood/Blanca and then turned around before the ridge and left.

I'm still wondering what that was about also.

[Justin9]

Just saw a fb post stating it was a bogus or prank call? I would hope that people are more reasonable than to do a prank SAR call. I'll update this post if I hear anything different.

[mtn_nut]

I was up on ellingwood on Saturday. They were looking for someone who called in saying they were lost, but wasn't sure where on blanca. They hung up because they "ran out of batteries". SAR searched the whole blanca massif via helicopter and on foot. Last I heard, they didn't find anyone. There were plenty of people on all of the routes on the mountains including the LB Blanca traverse, and it didn't seem like anyone saw any signs of the missing person.

[My-Therapy]

Saw this on the FB page

[IkeB]

Its just strange that that post doesn't match what SAR on the ground were saying. They were reporting a 911 call for a broken leg and that the search was called off with no one found.

[jana1969]

My name is Jana. My friend, Gayla, and I made the summit of Blanca Peak an came down on the wrong side of the mountain by accident. We quickly realized our mistake, but made the decision it was too dangerous and too late to try to backtrack. I called 911 to let someone know where we were located in case one of us got hurt. We had very little cell phone battery left, so we weren't able to keep in contact with the search parties that started to look for us. I was very surprised when were rescued by a National Guard blackhawk helicopter.

The helicopter dropped us off in Blanca. The police chief there told us that he had made the decision to call the National Guard because we had already spent 2 nights in the wilderness without food. We were told that the Alamosa search and rescue team were looking for us first, but got a call that someone had broken their leg. Since we had crossed into another county, Blanca took over the rescue. I found it very odd that the person with the broken leg was not found and that they called off the search. It's still a mystery to me. If anyone finds out anything about this- I'd be interested to hear.

[Traveler]

Jana, thanks for clearing up (at least part of) the mystery. It was a strange experience that day climbing Blanca with so many rescuers going up, coming down, and generally seeming confused about which way they should be going.

Did you end up heading down Blanca on the side towards Mt Lindsey? That must have been quite an experience to be rescued by a Blackhawk!

[Gcarney]

This is Gayla, Jana's friend. We actually came down the south side into Blanca Basin. I'm wondering if there wasn't some confusion between our SAR mission & the one on Crestone Peak. The National Guard headed straight there to get a pregnant woman who'd fallen & broken a leg.

[SoCool]

To Gayla and Jana, thank you for the clarification and welcome to the forum. Also, I'm sure I speak for many here when I say we are curious to hear your story. To analyze is to learn, and is much less offensive with no fatalities involved. (Let's be respectful, folks, and not pass judgement, but simply listen.)

[Gcarney]

This might help

[Gcarney]

I agree. And believe me, we've analyzed this to death! We take full responsibility for our mistakes, and we never really asked for a rescue. When we called in, we realized we'd gotten on the wrong side of the ridge, but decided it was too dangerous to try & go back up. We wanted someone to know where we were & we were hoping someone might be able to give us some idea of the best route out.