After surviving a night of rain, sleet and 35-mph gusts at the summit of Longs Peak, rescuers at Rocky Mountain National Park strapped Jeff Vil lano to a stretcher Friday and began lowering him down the vertical northeast face.
“In that section, it’s extremely steep. They’re using ropes and technical equipment,” park spokeswoman Kyle Pat terson said.
The 37-year-old Lakewood man was on his way down the Keyhole route Thursday morning after reaching the 14,259- foot summit when he fell 20 feet and broke his leg.
From his hospital bed at Swedish Medical Center in Englewood, Villano said Saturday that he tripped and snapped his bone against a sharp rock.
Villano initially was helped by a registered nurse passing by on the trail and a couple he met at the summit. A helicopter then dropped 11 rescuers off on Longs Peak, where they hiked down to Villano at 13,600 feet and took him to the summit to await a medical helicopter.
Nightfall and “squirrelly winds” prompted the team to change plans and camp for the night on the summit, something Villano said he always wanted to do.
Extra supplies – including sleeping bags, heavy-duty nylon sacks for shelter and insulin for Villano, who is diabetic – were dropped off by helicopter.
Faced with high winds and low visibility that prevented a helicopter rescue again Friday morning, rescuers opted to carry Villano down the mountain via the historic Cable route, where bolts remain that once supported steel cables to aid rock climbing.
Villano, who has done some technical rock climbing, said the Cable route was his first choice for climbing Long’s, but his friend Lance Dickson did not want to do it.
“I was glad I got to do it after all,” Villano said. “It was like being at Elitch’s (Six Flags Elitch Gardens in Denver).”
After lowering Villano, rescuers carried him across a field covered with snow to a flat area scattered with boulders. From there, he was carried 6 miles to the trailhead and taken to Estes Park Medical Center in an ambulance. He was then transferred to Swedish Medical Center. Villano’s wife, Nicki, said she thought Dicksonwas playing a practical joke when he called Thursday to tell her about the accident.
Staff writer Abbe Smith can be reached at 303-820-1201 or asmith@denverpost.com.
