Golden – An hours-long rescue operation in the mountains above Golden on Tuesday should serve as a safety reminder for hikers and climbers who love Colorado’s high country, authorities said.
A trio from Kansas went hiking Monday in Clear Creek Canyon, but a severely twisted ankle forced one of the men to spend the night on a cold, dark mountain while his brother and a friend hiked down to call for help.
“Make sure you have a plan,” said Jacki Kelley, a spokeswoman with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. “Make sure you’re confident in your ability to do the things you’re doing.”
David Seals, 34, of Topeka, Kan., was taken off the mountain on a stretcher, and rescuers used ropes and a pulley system to lower him down a steep drop, about 600 feet, to an ambulance on U.S. 6.
The hikers were well prepared – they had water and a GPS device – and apparently didn’t do anything wrong, Kelley said.
“I don’t know that they took any severe risks,” she said.
But they could get the bill for the rescue, which could run as high as several thousand dollars.
The purchase of a Colorado fishing license includes an insurance policy that covers the cost of back-country rescues. Kelley didn’t know if any of the Kansas men had a fishing license.
Seals was taken to St. Anthony Central Hospital, where he was treated for his injury and released, said hospital spokeswoman Bev Lily. He declined to be interviewed.
The men – Seals, his brother Robert, and a friend, Eurich Garcia – set off on their Monday hike up a well-marked, fairly gentle trail in the midafternoon, Kelley said.
They were on their way back down when Seals severely twisted his ankle at about 6:30 p.m., Kelley said.
After the injury, the trio tried to work their way down the trail, but at about 10:30 p.m., Seals couldn’t go on.
The men had a cellphone but couldn’t get a signal in the remote canyon. Robert Seals and Garcia used a GPS device to help find their way off the mountain. They called authorities from an emergency phone in a call box along U.S. 6, near tunnel No. 1, at about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday.
As rescuers worked their way toward Seals in the dark, he used a flash on a camera to pinpoint his spot.
Rain made the mountain slick, and rescuers – from the Golden Fire Department, West Metro Fire Protection District and Alpine Rescue – decided to lower Seals down a steeper but more direct route, rather than retrace the longer trail.
“Rescuers were very concerned about the rocks,” Kelley said. “They were very, very slick.”
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
