An ice climber who fell ill Wednesday afternoon was rescued from the snowy back country near Telluride.
The climber, a man in his 20’s, and his climbing partner, a Utah woman in her 30’s, trekked through deep snow up the Galloping Goose Trail starting about 7 a.m. Wednesday, according to the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office.
They had planned to climb the Ames Ice Hose, but the man “felt too ill to attempt the climb,” the sheriff’s office said in a media release.
They turned around to head back down and the man became quite ill, with “painful and relentless bouts of nausea and vomiting,” the release said.
The pair called 911 at about 12:15 p.m. for help.
The ill man’s climbing partner is a former emergency medical technician. She gave her partner warm fluids and kept him ambulatory. The temperature on the mountain was between zero and 10 degrees.
San Miguel sheriff’s deputies and a search and rescue volunteer put together a hasty team and, using snowmobiles, reached the desperate climber at about 2 p.m., the sheriff’s office said.
“There were a confluence of factors working to his benefit, and without perhaps just one of them, this could have easily had a tragic outcome,” Sheriff Bill Masters said in the release.
The ill climber was taken off the mountain by snow machine to a staging area and then taken by ambulance to Telluride Medical Center.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822, knicholson@denverpost.com or @kierannicholson
