An office retreat that involved hiking a took a turn for the worse over the weekend when one hiker was left to summit alone and ended up spending the night lost on the peak in freezing rain. According to a Facebook post, which you can view below, Chaffee County SAR South received the report for an overdue hiker on Mount Shavano at around 9 p.m.
on Friday night. That's around 15 hours after the group had reportedly set off. According to the post, the group of 15 hikers split into two teams taking different routes.
Somehow, one hiker got left on his own. "In what might cause some awkward encounters at the office in the coming days and weeks, one member of their party was left to complete his final summit push alone," writes the SAR team in their roundup of events. The solo hiker reportedly made it to the summit at around 11:30 a.
m. then became disoriented on his descent, when he discovered that personal belongings left in the as navigation markers had been collected by other members of his group on their descent. The hiker ended up in a steep boulder and field before communicating his location via pin drop to his coworkers who told him he was off-route to retrace his steps.
At nearly 4 p.m., the man texted his colleagues again to say he was nearly back on the trail when an – a common occurrence in Colorado – rolled in.
"Shortly after that message, a strong storm passed through the area with freezing rain and high winds, and he again became disoriented, losing cell phone sig.