Mountain Rescue Aspen has a strict policy of not singling out members of the team, but it broke tradition recently to praise a rookie for playing a vital role in locating a lost hiker near Chapman Campground on June 27.
It was the first mission where MRA used a Matrice 210 drone fitted with an infrared camera and a second, powerful zoom camera. The drone was used at night to pinpoint where a woman was walking and to direct a ground team to her.
“We would have never found this woman,” said Doug Paley, a rescue leader.
MRA received the call at 6:20 p.m. on a Wednesday that the hiker was overdue. She was last seen at 2 p.m.
Eighteen volunteers with MRA assembled at the site about 30 miles east of Basalt in the Fryingpan Valley and launched a search at 7:50 p.m.
“The one thing that challenges rescues is we never have enough information,” Paley said.
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