Colorado Springs Man Lost Descending Shavano, Both Legs Amputated

[broncotw]

I hope Nick has a quick recovery and returns to the mountains soon! Prayers for him and his family!

[pcrotty41]

Prayers for this man and catastrophe can strike any of us at any time. So sorry about this and hope Nick has a speedy recovery.

[Jim Davies]

The CS Gazette has a longer interview article this morning (possibly paywalled). Short take: he started at 11 am, and cached his gear below the summit (and couldn't find it on the way down; high winds covered his tracks). He also punched through the snow into the creek a few times on the way down, so his feet got wet.
https://gazette.com/premium/colorado-sp ... f1204.html

[HikerBox]

The classic phrase "never get separated from your lunch" comes to mind. Terrible tragedy to lose both lower legs after a few poor decisions like that but sounds like he has the right attitude.

[JQDivide]

This is another example of it not being one choice, but a series of bad choices, that leads to a poor outcome.
I hope his recovery is smooth for him and his family.

JQ

[justiner]

The classic phrase "never get separated from your lunch" comes to mind. Terrible tragedy to lose both lower legs after a few poor decisions like that but sounds like he has the right attitude.

You could be on to something. I'll link to this book again, since it really helped this idiot over here (*points to himself*) get a smidgen of perspective on the way they were doing things:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06VVMN5J2

I couldn't read the Gazette article - I think it's "premium" content, unfortunately (but you know: journalists gotta eat).

Hope for a speedy recovery for this gentleman as well. There's no causation that I can think of, but it seems a lot of accidents that make the news are from CO Springs people. Some of them from seemingly well trained, fit, and experienced men. All men, though: it seems.

[Monster5]

All of these actions (dropping packs, late morning starts, losing the track, etc) are regularly taken/experienced by the entire spectrum of mountaineering skill level. It isn't the action itself that is necessarily at fault, but the lack of consideration for consequences and ways to mitigate those consequences in a situational context.

It's fairly elementary to harp on big picture decisions. But it makes for a better learning opportunity to delve a step further: accept that his decisions best balanced reward versus risk in his particular situation. What were those rewards? What were the risks? Which risks were not considered? How could he have better mitigated the risks while still favoring the rewards? Perhaps his solution was as simple as marking a GPS waypoint and stuffing a few items into his pockets. Perhaps not.

[HikerBox]

All of these actions (dropping packs, late morning starts, losing the track, etc) are regularly taken/experienced by the entire spectrum of mountaineering skill level. It isn't the action itself that is necessarily at fault, but the lack of consideration for consequences and ways to mitigate those consequences in a situational context.

It's fairly elementary to harp on big picture decisions. But it makes for a better learning opportunity to delve a step further: accept that his decisions best balanced reward versus risk in his particular situation. What were those rewards? What were the risks? Which risks were not considered? How could he have better mitigated the risks while still favoring the rewards? Perhaps his solution was as simple as marking a GPS waypoint and stuffing a few items into his pockets. Perhaps not.

That's a good point - I rarely find dropping packs to be that big of an actual speed difference, it's mostly mental. If you're carrying enough crap for it to make the difference between summiting and not, you either took too much stuff or something else went wrong (navigation, fitness, weather, etc.).

[mountainrev]

One detail that jumped out at me in the interview in today's Gazette was that he was apparently wearing trail runners, not boots. That certainly contributed to him losing his footwear (and ultimately feet). I sometimes wear trail runners when hiking 14ers, but only in the summer.

[angry]

I couldn't read the Gazette article - I think it's "premium" content, unfortunately (but you know: journalists gotta eat).

Here's a free version https://www.outtherecolorado.com/surviv ... 9w7SR84vlw

[bergsteigen]

Backcountry skiing has a saying with regards to avalanches: You get away with it, until you don’t.

You can ski a slope and it doesn’t avalanche. Was it because you made a good decision? Or was it because you just didn’t happen to ski over the trigger point? Many people think that because it didn’t trigger, they were safe, when in fact, they just got lucky.

As monster says above, many experienced people will make the same decisions that this guy did. Drop a pack, wear trail runners, etc. Many people “get away” with these decisions... until they don’t. Do you want to risk it?

Bottom line: sh!t happens.

[Colorado dreaming]

It is pretty amazing that he self-rescued! I with the best for him and his family.

From the article, it does seem like he was well prepared for the hike but two decisions ended up costing him - leaving his pack with his gear to go for the summit and, without finding it on the way back down (he said he thinks he was within 20 feet of it), changing course for what he thought was a faster way down (he saw the lights of Salida and headed that way), though from the article it was not clear if he lost the trail when he made that change of course.

One thing that stood out for me was that he met a group of hunters who pointed him the right direction back to his car. However, it doesn't seem from the article that they assisted him. Assuming arguendo that they didn't (the article gives info which strongly implies they didn't do anything to help him other than point the way to his car) - why not? They find a guy without shoes, his feet in bad condition, etc. I would think they would do what they could, including helping him down the trail, helping him get warm liquids, wrap his feet up, carry him, make the 911 call for him ASAP, etc.