Garfield County Search & Rescue spent Sunday night and early Monday rescuing hunters and college students in the mountains of Garfield County.
The same rescuers assisted two different groups, according to Philip Strouse, spokesman for the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office.
At approximately 8:12 p.m. Sunday, a 35-year-old hunter, reported that he, his teenage son and his son’s friend had gotten lost in the White River National Forest’s Willow Peak area.
Disoriented, with their cell phone battery running low and daylight fading, the hunters made a 911 call requesting help.
Strouse said that dispatchers were able to pinpoint their location using the cell phone’s “Phase II” GPS capability that provided rescuers with a latitudinal-longitudinal location.
The three rescuers, on ATVs, were able to reach the hunters around 2:28 a.m. today after cutting through downed trees and driving through muddy conditions.
After bringing the hunters out, the rescuers were told that six students from Colorado Mountain College’s Spring Valley Campus, who had decided to go exploring the Hubbard Cave area late Sunday, had gotten stranded.
Strouse said the students’ pickup had become stuck in mud after the exhaust tail pipe punctured the right rear-tire. Strouse added that the students were lightly dressed and unprepared for deteriorating weather conditions.
The students contacted dispatchers at 1:56 a.m. today. Again, emergency rescuers were able to pinpoint their location with the help of one of the students’ GPS units. The same three rescuers who had earlier reached the hunters, reached the students at 6:15 a.m. today.
All the students had returned to their campus by 8 a.m. after being rescued.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
