Hiker ignores calls from SAR

HikerGuy · Post by **HikerGuy** » Mon Oct 25, 2021 3:30 pm

That's a new one, haha. What a long year it has been for SAR.

Hiker lost on mountain for 24 hours ignored calls from rescuers because he didn’t recognize phone number

"A hiker who was lost on a mountain for about 24 hours ignored calls from rescue crews because he didn’t recognize the phone number, officials said.

The hiker was reported missing last week after they never returned from a trek on Mount Elbert in Colorado, the highest summit of the Rocky Mountains, according to Lake County Search and Rescue.

After an unsuccessful search of an area where hikers typically get lost, crews learned that the lost individual had returned to their place of lodging.

“One notable take-away is that the subject ignored repeated phone calls from us because they didn’t recognize the number,” officials said in a news release. “If you’re overdue according to your itinerary, and you start getting repeated calls from an unknown number, please answer the phone.”

The hiker claimed they got lost when it got dark and that they reached their car the next morning."

FireOnTheMountain · Post by **FireOnTheMountain** » Mon Oct 25, 2021 3:35 pm

Telemarketers are especially annoying when you are hopelessly lost.

hskrhiker · Post by **hskrhiker** » Mon Oct 25, 2021 4:10 pm

Why do I think there is more to this story?

Dave B · Post by **Dave B** » Mon Oct 25, 2021 4:14 pm

But dude hadn't called for rescue? Why hadn't whoever called SAR tried calling dude?

Also, this is why I will always keep my Oregon number, spam calls are easy to ID as they all come in with 503 area code (I actually once got a spam call that showed up with my actual number on caller ID). If I get a 970 call, I know it's actually a human being.

dwoodward13 · Post by **dwoodward13** » Mon Oct 25, 2021 4:18 pm

A lot of questions on this one. Did SAR not try and text him? Seems that they would. Did his reporting party not call/text and say "hey SAR is calling you answer the damn phone!". Seems SAR also would have had them try that if they repeatedly kept getting voicemail after getting a few rings.

Glad everyone returned safely, but this is a strange one.

Edit: Reading the FB comments, SAR posted both Texts and Voicemails were left.

Chicago Transplant · Post by **Chicago Transplant** » Mon Oct 25, 2021 4:20 pm

From a different article I read, he was reported lost/overdue by another person. Presumably that reporting person had the hiker's number and the hiker would have recognized the number. So why didn't they call the hiker to see if they were okay? On a related note, why didn't the hiker call his friend and say he'd be late? Then again, might not have had service at that time. Sounds like this guy was out the next morning so the calls from SAR may have been when he was already safely off the mountain anyway. This article has more detail:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/hi ... li=BBnbfcL

We actually had a person in our winter LaPlata group years ago have their contact person call SAR. None of us knew that had happened until we were well off the mountain as that person called their contact in Leadville and was told that they had called SAR because we were late. I didn't even find out about until the next day because I was driving separately. The sun sets early in February and we got beknighted but were on trail and just hiking out following our trench, we had no reason to think anything of it. Sometimes hikes just go a little long.

speth · Post by **speth** » Mon Oct 25, 2021 5:01 pm

FireOnTheMountain wrote: ↑Mon Oct 25, 2021 3:35 pm Telemarketers are especially annoying when you are hopelessly lost.

They needed to contact him on the summit concerning his car's extended warranty.

amags543 · Post by **amags543** » Mon Oct 25, 2021 5:13 pm

Honestly if I was trying to find the trail late at night probably with cold hands in gloves, and I hadn't asked SAR for any help (and had cellular data enabled for some reason to get phone calls) I would probably not bother to stop and pickup a call from an unknown number either.
That's the last thing I'd care about. Spam call is a much more likely explanation than SAR if you didn't call SAR. I don't really understand why the guy did anything wrong here

justiner · Post by **justiner** » Mon Oct 25, 2021 5:20 pm

SAR could of texted, it is 2021.

FireOnTheMountain · Post by **FireOnTheMountain** » Mon Oct 25, 2021 5:29 pm

speth wrote: ↑Mon Oct 25, 2021 5:01 pm
FireOnTheMountain wrote: ↑Mon Oct 25, 2021 3:35 pm Telemarketers are especially annoying when you are hopelessly lost.
They needed to contact him on the summit concerning his car's extended warranty.

Not to mention 10% savings on car insurance.

Wentzl · Post by **Wentzl** » Mon Oct 25, 2021 5:32 pm

Boston news source.

Unnamed "official" said this and that. Has anyone traced this back to a Colorado SAR source?

And I admit to being ignorant on this point, but the story referenced the area where "hikers typically get lost" on Elbert. Really? There is such a place?

Has potential to be the next best option after the suicide forest on Mt. Fuji.

justiner · Post by **justiner** » Mon Oct 25, 2021 5:40 pm

I've lost the trail a bunch of times. Once there's snow, the upper parts are hard to follow as the trail gets filled in with snow blown in. The lower parts where it switchbacks up are really difficult if the trail isn't broken in as you're side traversing on the slope.

Hiker ignores calls from SAR

Hiker ignores calls from SAR

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