Charles Horton survived eight nights stranded alone in the snowy mountains of Rio Blanco County because he did things right. A day of cross-country skiing for the 55-year-old Steamboat Springs man turned potentially deadly after he broke his leg. In some similar cases, others have let themselves die.
Horton had gone into the woods carrying the right gear, including warm clothes, a space blanket and means to start a fire. And he had a whistle, which alerted rescuers to his whereabouts after dehydration left him unable to yell for help.
If Horton has any second thoughts about his preparations, it’s probably that he didn’t have any clear arrangement for friends to call for help if he wasn’t home by a certain time. As a result, some time passed before friends realized he was missing and contacted the sheriff. When rescuers got to the right site, they only searched an hour before finding him.
And here’s a word about those rescuers: The Routt and Rio Blanco County search and rescue teams are among 57 such units in Colorado, whose volunteer members sacrifice weekends and evenings to undertake rigorous training. Their only reward is the heartfelt thanks of the people they help – like Horton. Despite the time that had passed, the search and rescue units still considered the Horton mission a rescue, not a body recovery. They weren’t going to give up.
Horton had what experts call, with some understatement, positive mental attitude. Sure, the emergency gear proved crucial, as were the survival classes he’d taken. Yet what really kept Horton alive wasn’t just what was he had stuffed in his backpack. It was what he carried around in his head.
