A snowboarder at Keystone who was reported missing three days ago was found alive Saturday morning by members of the Summit County Search and Rescue team.
John Ryan, 31, of Erie, likely survived nights in the low teens because he made a shelter out of pine boughs, said Summit County Search and Rescue spokesman Mike Schmitt.
Ryan went snowboarding alone on Wednesday. On Thursday, he didn’t show up for work and was reported missing. His car was found in a parking lot at Keystone.
On Friday, rescuers searched until nightfall before calling off the search. Ryan was found at 10:04 a.m. Saturday 500 yards out of bounds in the Jones Gulch wilderness area.
“He started hollering after he heard us,” Schmitt said. “He admitted to ducking a rope” and snowboarding out of bounds, he added.
Ryan wound up in University Hospital, where he was being treated for frostbite, said spokeswoman Mitzi Schindler. He was in good condition.
Ryan, who works as an assistant general manager at the Pumphouse Brewery in Longmont, is well-liked by his co- workers and customers.
Ross Hagen, the brewery’s managing partner, said Ryan is never late to work and has not missed a day in the two years he’s been employed there.
“That’s (why) we got concerned,” Hagen said.
Hagen said Ryan’s wife, Karen, works with her husband as a server and on Friday night, the pub’s typically festive atmosphere turned tense.
“We were all holding out hope,” Hagen said.
Saturday morning, tension turned to relief after Amy Marcellus, who works with Ryan and helped in the search, called and told Hagen that Ryan had been found alive in “perfect health.”
Rescuers said he may have become disoriented after riding out of bounds, Hagen said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
