Four backcountry skiers were evacuated from a Colorado mountain by helicopter in separate rescues overnight Sunday and later Monday after suffering frostbite and other “extreme cold injuries” when temperatures plunged below zero, according to officials.
One of the skiers was hospitalized in critical condition, officials said.
Pitkin County emergency responders first received a “medical SOS” from the at about 9:40 p.m. Sunday, according to a from the sheriff’s office and .
The hut is one of seven in the , a community-supported that claims to be the in Colorado. The Goodwin Greene hut is nestled in the Elk Mountains.
Two skiers in a seven-person group were unable to make it to the hut Sunday and were injured by the extreme cold, Pitkin County officials stated in the news release.
Temperatures at the nearby Aspen/Pitkin County Airport hit 1 degree below zero at 9:53 p.m. Sunday, which felt closer to 12 degrees below with windchill, according to .
By the time rescuers were out of the field at 3:45 a.m. Monday, temperatures at the airport had dropped to 9 degrees below zero and a minus 24 windchill, according to the weather service.
Temperatures close to 22 degrees below zero with an unknown windchill were recorded on the mountain at one point during the rescue, according to the sheriff’s office.
Mountain Rescue Aspen officials mobilized a team of snowmobiles to find the skiers and contacted CareFlight of the Rockies for medical assistance, rescue officials said.
The helicopter pilot took three tries to land on the mountain because of the weather, including strong winds, but eventually found the two hypothermic skiers on a snowy ridge, according to the news release. Both skiers were taken by helicopter to Aspen Valley Health. One was in critical condition, officials said.
The remaining five members of the backcountry ski group called in a second SOS at 11:53 a.m. Monday from the Goodwin Greene hut and reported they had all suffered frostbite, Pitkin County officials said in a .
Mountain Rescue Aspen dispatched a ground team on snowmobiles while CareFlight sent a helicopter again, this time landing about 500 feet from the hut, officials said.
The five remaining members of the ski party reported “all having cold-related injuries of varying degrees, including one person suffering from loss of eyesight.”
Two of them were determined to have serious injuries and were airlifted to Aspen Valley Health for treatment, officials said. The ground team arrived on scene and provided medical treatment to the three other skiers, who suffered minor cold injuries and “were left behind per their own request,” officials said.
“Do not underestimate the changing mountain conditions, have adequate clothing for the projected weather conditions and be open to rescheduling or turning around to avoid getting caught in unfavorable weather,” Pitkin County officials stated in the release.
