A hiker abandoned on a Colorado mountain by his co-workers was stranded overnight in freezing rain and high winds

SALIDA, Colo. — A man, abandoned by his group of office colleagues to complete his final push to the summit of a Colorado mountain, became disoriented and fell several times during a night on the mountain in freezing rain and high winds.

Chaffee County Search and Rescue officials said in a Facebook post that they received a call Friday night about a hiker who had become overdue on Mount Shavano. The mountain, which has an elevation of 14,231 feet (4,338 meters), is about 153 miles (426 kilometers) southwest of Denver.

A group of 15 hikers, including the man, left the trail at dawn Friday as part of an office retreat and some members of the group planned to climb to the summit. The man had to complete his last-ditch effort to reach the summit alone, authorities said.

The man reached the summit about 11:30 a.m. Friday and became disoriented when he turned around to descend, discovering that belongings he had left in a boulder field to mark the descent had been collected, authorities said. When his initial descents took him to a scree field, which is an unstable slope made up of rock fragments and other debris, he texted his coworkers, who told him he had strayed off course and to climb back up to find the trail.

Shortly before 4 p.m., he texted that he was near the trail, but a strong storm passed through with freezing rain and high winds and he became disoriented and lost cell phone signal, according to the post.

The search and rescue team received a call around 9 p.m. and sent out teams who searched without success until the next morning. They encountered high winds and freezing rain, which made reaching the summit unsafe, officials said. A search helicopter also failed to locate the hiker overnight.

On Saturday morning, as rescue crews from nearly a dozen agencies were launching a massive search operation, the hiker called 911 and crews were able to locate him in a ravine. He told search and rescue officials that he had fallen at least 20 times on the steep slopes during the storm and that after the latest fall, he was unable to get back up.

After the man was pulled from the ravine, stabilized and evaluated, he was taken to a hospital for further care. The man’s name and the severity of his injuries were not released.

“This hiker was extremely fortunate to have regained cell signal when he did, and to still have enough consciousness and wherewithal to call 911,” search and rescue officials said. “Although he was located in a tertiary search area, it would have been some time before crews would have reached that location on their own.”