15 workers on office retreat hiked up a mountain — and one got left behind

An office retreat in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado devolved into a worst-case scenario for one of the 15 workers this past weekend: He got separated from his colleagues, who work in the insurance industry, and he was left to find his own way down through a mountain’s steep terrain.

The man became lost and ended up spending the night on the side of Mount Shavano, where he was pelted by high winds and freezing rain. And because he fell repeatedly on the rocky and steep terrain, rescue teams had to use a stretcher to get him off the mountain after he was finally located on Saturday.

The nightmarish ordeal “might cause some awkward encounters at the office in the coming days and weeks,” said Chaffee County Search and Rescue South, which led the effort to retrieve the man.

The search and rescue team, which is operated by volunteers, didn’t identify the man, telling NPR he is in his 50s.

“I do want to state the hiker was not abandoned outright by his group, but that they did separate on the final portion of trail to the summit,” which left him alone, Evan Brady, public information officer for Chaffee County SAR South, told NPR.

How the hiker became separated from the group

The insurance workers had met at sunrise last Friday to embark on their trip up Mount Shavano. The mountain is a “fourteener” — meaning it’s one of Colorado’s summits that top 14,000 feet. They then divided into smaller groups, with some aiming to reach the summit and others hiking to the mountain’s lower “saddle” before returning.

The lone hiker, who was wearing all black, somehow found himself between these two groups. After reaching the summit at 11:30 a.m., he became disoriented as he tried to descend on his own. Complicating his task: His coworkers had picked up pieces of gear the team had left to mark their path through the boulders.

As the man tried to descend, “he found himself in the steep boulder and scree field on the northeast slopes toward Shavano Lake,” the rescue team said. He used his cellphone to send GPS pins of his location to his coworkers, who told him he needed to double back to regain the trail.

After about four hours, the man texted his coworkers to say he was close to the trail, still high on the mountain. But then “a strong storm passed through the area with freezing rain and high winds, and he again became disoriented, losing cell phone signal as well,” according to Chaffee County Search and Rescue.

At dusk, two of the office workers went back up the trail to look for the man, Brady said. Having no luck, they turned back as darkness fell on the mountain.

At 9 p.m., a call of an overdue hiker went out, setting search teams, a drone and a helicopter in motion. But with the storm bringing more wind and freezing rain, it was too unsafe for the teams to reach the summit.

A break, and the missing hiker is found

Finally, as teams from at least nine agencies helping the search effort, a break came on Saturday morning. The hiker’s phone regained enough signal for him to call 911. He was found in a gully; he told the rescue team that he had fallen at least 20 times during his attempt to descend the mountain.

“The first teams to reach him reported his was relieved to have been found, and excited,” Brady said. After the complex task of bringing the man down the mountain, an ambulance took him to a hospital.

“He is home with his family recovering, after a brief hospitalization,” Brady said.

For anyone — or any office group — planning a similar excursion, Brady has a piece of advice: stay together.

“Hikers separating from groups, whether voluntarily or accidentally is our No. 1 cause of lost hikers,” he said.

And just in case, you might want to be sure your phone has a full charge.