Rescuers Spot 'Unusual' Rock: It Was Their Lost Hiker

A hiker clad in a cotton hoodie ended up in serious trouble last week when a snowstorm swept over Colorado's Mount Princeton. However, all ended well when members of Chaffee County Search and Rescue who were tracking footprints in the snow came across "an unusual looking rock at approximately 2am" local time, according to a Facebook post by the group. "Upon further investigation it was determined it was not a rock but the subject sitting upright in a fetal position covered in snow." The team spent three hours warming the "very hypothermic" hiker before beginning the steep descent down again in the early hours of Thursday morning, per CBS News.

They had to use ropes at first and lower the hiker down bit by bit, but the hiker eventually was able to walk with rescuers to safety and a medical evaluation. The Sacramento Bee reports that the hiker had a phone and was able to convey a distress message, but rescuers couldn't determine the hiker's GPS coordinates. That led to an hourslong rescue mission through the snow and frigid weather, with only a general sense of where the hiker might be. The hiker had bushwhacked to a summit earlier in the day before becoming stranded without food or water, says the group. (More hikers stories.)