A Boulder man who got lost Saturday while backcountry skiing near Marble said he had made “multiple bad decisions” that resulted in him skiing about 18 miles over 28 hours in the Raggeds Wilderness and gutting out a night in the high mountains.
Greg Berry, 47, said Tuesday he got lost after skinning up the slopes and getting enticed by some ski tracks that led him away from his intended route down. The skiers he followed ended up skinning back up to the top of the slope, something Berry, who has an extensive skiing background, wasn’t prepared to do. He planned to keep skiing down the slope and return to the trailhead even though it was more circuitous than he originally planned.
After Berry realized he was lost, the clouds rolled in and that made it difficult for him to reorient himself. He ended up heading southwest rather than skiing north to the trailhead outside Marble.
During a long slog of roughly 12 additional hours that ran into Saturday night and continued Sunday morning, Berry encountered a brief snow shower that, at the time, had the makings of a perilous situation.
“I had a blizzard for about 10 minutes,” he recounted in a phone interview. “I said, ‘Wow, this is really trouble.'”
Berry said he was too tired to build a fire and spent the night hunkered down on his pack, wrapped in a space blanket. During the long, cold night waiting for daylight, he also used a hand warmer that he alternately placed under arms and on the back of his neck.
He’s recovering from mild frostbite on fingers and possibly some toes.
Read the full story
