Courtest of Summit County Rescue Group
SILVERTHORNE — Summit County Rescue Group reported a late-night rescue on Friday of a hiking couple, along with their dog, after they got cliffed-out in a couloir on the north side of Buffalo Mountain.
Rescue group spokesperson Charles Pitman said that the couple and their dog were rescued at about 11:45 p.m. Friday night after they had attempted to summit Buffalo Mountain, but then got lost trying to come back down and finally called for help at around 8 p.m.
Pitman said the couple, who are visiting from Texas, had run into the same problem other hikers have encountered while trying to summit Buffalo. Pitman said that, like at least three other instances this summer, the hikers managed to get up to the top of Buffalo fine, but then lost the main trail going back down as their perspective shifted.
“They had gotten off trail as they were descending, toward a place with rock bands,” Pitman said. “They drifted more to their left, toward the North, and wound up in one of the couloirs some people call Big Elvis.”
Pitman explained the couple had made it pretty far down the couloir, but started scrambling down loose scree before getting stuck on a cliff edge. The couple got a point where they didn’t feel comfortable to go down any further, especially traveling with a dog. They then decided to call for help.
Courtesy of Summit County Rescue Group
The rescue group, Pitman said, sent out two teams of eight members to assist in a technical rescue, even outfitted with a dog harness in case the dog needed to be lifted out. That did not wind up being the case, and all three souls were saved without injury.
The rescue mission wrapped up around midnight, and was stymied at one point when the rescuers and their charges encountered two bull moose idling by the trail. After finding a way to avoid the potentially dangerous wild animals, the group managed to get back to Ryan Gulch Road safely.
“Buffalo Mountain seems to be the ‘mountain du jour’ at the moment, in that this is the fourth or fifth rescue we’ve had to do there this summer,” Pitman said, adding a hiker had to be rescued from the same couloir on the northern side a few weeks ago.
When asked about whether trails needed to be expanded at the top, or whether the mountain needs signage to help guide people off, Pitman leaned against the notion of creeping further into the wilderness.
“I am always hesitant to say we need to expand trails or put signs up,” Pitman said. “It is a wilderness area, and people need to be aware of trail on way up. It makes sense to turn around and look down on occasion. People from out of state are not very aware of how to gain perspective and reference points.”
Pitman added that some of the trails on the mountain are game trails used by animals.
“When you get to top of these peaks, game trails look very similar to trail hiker would use, and they assume it’s for humans,” he said. “The problem is, the goats go to an area and scatter, which makes the trail disappear, and people get lost.”
Pitman said that the rescue group had seen a high level of calls this year, with around 120 calls for assistance thusfar. However, he said that the rescue group was still much busier last summer, when several hikers lost their lives, including well-known local coach and endurance athlete Hannah Taylor.