A 17-year-old plunged his car off the summit of Pikes Peak on Wednesday afternoon in what authorities said appeared to be a suicide attempt.
The teenager’s 1985 Nissan Maxima plummeted more than 1,000 feet down a ravine strewn with boulders and scree. He pulled himself from the wreckage, but it took hours for local rescuers and military helicopters to make the daring rescue.
“We’ve had rain, we’ve had snow, we’ve had lightning popping around us all day,” Steve Sperry, spokesman for El Paso County Search and Rescue, said by cellphone shortly after the teen was lifted from the mountain by a Chinook helicopter, after a Black Hawk helicopter had been unsuccessful in the windy, high-altitude terrain.
He was taken to Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs in stable condition, Sperry said. He would not identify the teen except to say he was from Colorado.
Witnesses at the summit saw the teen’s car plunge off the north side of the parking lot about 1:15 p.m.
“What we’ve got to do is interview the witnesses up there to determine if he drove off the cliff (on purpose) or crashed,” said Sgt. Scott Whisler of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.
Pikes Peak rises to 14,110 feet above sea level west of Colorado Springs.
Joey Bunch, The Denver Post
