25 year old male wandered from camp and didn't return
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September 4, 1988 |
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By Steve Bryant
Searches are not fun to go on, but they are great excuses to go hiking. It was a warm summer evening, the moon was bright, and as if it were planned the pager went off. It was a search on Black Mountain out of Boulder /Basin for a twenty-five year old male who had wandered away from camp. As always my heart rate picked up, the adrenaline pumped through my veins and my mind went to rescue mode.
While driving to base and listening to the radio traffic of the people already on scene I began to ponder where this person might be. Was he down and injured, or did he merely lose his bearings and then the night set in? Thinking the worst, I sped up thinking how terrible it would be to lay injured and alone.
Upon arriving on scene at base, things were in full swing. Teams had been deployed and the mountain was well covered with searchers yelling the name of the lost hiker.
Two other members were also available for an assignment and Operations Leader Glenn Henderson put the three of us together and sent us out to search the southwestern face of Black Mountain. Well, thankfully we hadn't gotten more than three hundred yards from base when over the radio we heard that the subject had just walked in to Vista Grande Ranger Station. I gave a sigh of relief and knew now that I could really enjoy being in the mountains on a beautiful summer evening.