A 64-year-old hiker, the father of a former Colorado legislator, was injured in a long fall and rescued by two Indiana men and a Colorado National Guard medic lowered from a Chinook helicopter Tuesday night.
Roy Knoedler of Boulder was on his way back down from Kit Carson Mountain, a fourteener in the Sangre de Cristo range, when he lost his footing in a snow field and began to slide Tuesday afternoon, said his son, Matt Knoedler, a former Republican state representative from Lakewood and a former policy adviser to Gov. Bill Owens.
His father has climbed most of Colorado’s fourteeners as well as other famous summits around the world
Sliding and tumbling about 1,500 feet, Roy Knoedler broke his right arm and several bones in his face. The family hopes he will be released from St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center in Pueblo in a couple of days, his son said.
His father had begun the hike at 10 a.m. and reached the summit about 2 p.m., Matt Knoedler said. He fell about 3:30 p.m. Two hikers found him crumpled precariously on Challenger Point, at an altitude of 12,600 feet, at 10:50 p.m.
A National Guard helicopter from Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora raced to the scene.
The rescue at a 75-degree slope in the dark of night was daring. Crews wore night-vision goggles.
“We had approximately 15 to 20 feet of clearance between our rotors and the side of the mountain while hovering,” Sgt. Greg Riss, a crew member on the rescue, said in a statement from the National Guard.
The National Guard credited the two unnamed hikers from Terra Haute, Ind., who stayed with Knoedler and then assisted the medic, Sgt. Josh Moyer, who was lowered from the helicopter.
Had the two hikers not been there to assist, Knoedler could have fallen another 1,000 feet before or during the rescue, the pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Curtis Hathcock, said.
Matt Knoedler said Wednesday afternoon that he was still working to get the hikers’ names to personally express the family’s gratitude.
“We’re so extremely appreciative of everything the National Guard and everyone else did,” he said. “They saved my dad’s life.”
