Estes Park – Having seen rescue helicopters pass overhead eight times in the three days he was lost in Rocky Mountain National Park, Hillel Ben-Avi jumped off his rocky perch and chased after No. 9.
It was the one that saved his life.
Ben-Avi, who was found Wednesday by rescue crews after he went missing in the park’s remote Mummy Range, said his survival strategy was simple.
“I was just drinking water out of the beautiful stream there and hanging out on a rock waiting for these guys and gals,” he said.
The 45-year-old radiologist from Austin, Texas, was recovering Thursday from a medical condition resulting from the breakdown of muscle fibers that could lead to kidney damage. Ben-Avi said the affliction may have been caused by the 10 to 12 hours of severe shivering he experienced overnight on Tuesday.
“I really feel like one or two more nights out there and I would be dead,” Ben-Avi told reporters Thursday at the Estes Park Medical Center.
Ben-Avi is an experienced hiker who has been to the park at least six times. He reached the 13,502-foot summit of Fairchild Mountain on Sunday afternoon and decided not to wait for his brother, who fell behind on the trail.
On the way down, he made a wrong turn.
“I definitely wish I had more sense,” he said, noting the mistake.
When Ben-Avi realized he was lost, he used his cellphone to call his wife. Irit Ben-Avi stayed on the phone with her husband while she called authorities.
While it was the last time anyone would make phone contact with Ben-Avi, park rangers tested areas within the park for cellphone reception to determine where to focus their search efforts.
The father of three boys, his youngest only 8 weeks old and his oldest about to celebrate his seventh birthday Saturday, Ben-Avi passed the time thinking about his life in Texas and singing. He had no food.
At night, he wrapped a tie-dyed shirt around his face to warm the air he breathed and took shelter between two rocks.
“The thing that was gonna kill me was the cold,” he said.
Ben-Avi found a discarded fishing pole by a stream and attached a white shirt he was wearing to make a flag to wave at helicopters.
Rangers flying in a helicopter spotted Ben-Avi waving the makeshift flag Wednesday afternoon.
After previous failed attempts to flag down rescuers, Ben-Avi became frantic when he saw this helicopter turn around and head the other way. Not realizing the pilot was looking for a place to land, he mustered the last of his energy and ran after the aircraft and waited for it to land.
Ben-Avi removed his glasses to wipe tears as he thanked the roughly 100 people who joined the search effort.
“I’m Jewish and in my religion we have a saying. ‘If you save one life, you save the entire world.’ And they saved my entire world,” he said.
The rescue mission cost more than $130,000, said Mark Magnuson, chief park ranger. The cost will be covered by the National Park Service.
Magnuson said the rescue was especially uplifting after ranger Jeff Christensen died while patrolling the Mummy Range last month.
“It’s nice to get a win,” he said.
Staff writer Abbe Smith can be reached at 303-820-1201 or asmith@denverpost.com.
