A 36-year-old backcountry skier was rescued Sunday after suffering a head injury while skiing northeast of Aspen on Mount Yeckel, the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Monday morning.
The man was skiing with a group when the incident happened. The extent of his injuries, his name and hometown were not released.
The PItkin County Regional Emergency Dispatch Center received a telephone report from the International Emergency Response Coordination Center that an InReach electronic communication device had issued an emergency signal near Mount Yeckel, which is 8.7 miles northeast of Aspen, according to the release.
His fellow skiers attended to the man while Mountain Rescue Aspen personnel responded to the scene with the use of six snowmobiles and a total of 21 MRA volunteers, the Sheriff’s Office said.
The patient was transported on a toboggan being pulled by a snowmobile to the trailhead near Lenado, and he transported to Aspen Valley Hospital via ambulance, the release states. All personnel were out of the field at 10:30 p.m.
The Sheriff’s Office and MRA encourages all backcountry users to have a two-way communication device with them.