Boulder County, Colo. - Shortly after 8:00 a.m. this morning, the Boulder County Communications Center received notification from a family member that an emergency alert from a handheld GPS device had been activated by their son. The 22-year-old male was injured after sustaining a fall while climbing. With assistance from his parents, we were able to receive the coordinates for where injured climber was located.

The climber fell while doing a technical climb up the Juliet couloir, a steep, narrow gully, on Mt. Neva. He fell approximately 400 meters down the snowfield, hit a grouping of rocks and sustained serious injuries to his lower body.

Search and rescue teams were sent in from the ground, as well as from the air, using Flight For Life Colorado. Once rescuers reached the injured climber, they were able to tend to his injuries until the Colorado Army National Guard arrived and completed a hoist rescue into a Black Hawk helicopter. He was flown to the Boulder Airport where an AMR ambulance was waiting and then transported to a local hospital.

Although he was climbing by himself, he did have proper safety equipment with him, including the handheld GPS device and an orange rescue blanket, both of which helped rescuers to be able to quickly locate him. The rescue took approximately four hours to complete.

The following agencies helped with this rescue: Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, Rocky Mountain Rescue Group, Nederland Fire, American Medical Response, Flight For Life Colorado and the Colorado Army National Guard.

The associated Boulder County Sheriff’s Office case number is: 20-2565.

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/s/ Carrie Haverfield, Public Information Specialist