{"id":21548,"date":"2025-07-02T23:12:33","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T23:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/man-rescued-from-ice-lakes-trail-after-falling-80-100-feet\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:07:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:07:15","slug":"man-rescued-from-ice-lakes-trail-after-falling-80-100-feet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/man-rescued-from-ice-lakes-trail-after-falling-80-100-feet\/","title":{"rendered":"Man rescued from Ice Lakes Trail after falling 80-100 feet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Silverton Medical Rescue team works to stabilize a man in preparation for evacuation Tuesday after he fell least 80 feet down a cliff while hiking near Ice Lakes east of Silverton. (Courtesy of Silverton Medical Rescue Team)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A man fell 80 to 100 feet from a cliff while hiking Tuesday on Ice Lakes Trail east of Silverton.<\/p>\n

The Silverton Medical Rescue team and the San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office moved the man from the trail to an awaiting Flight For Life helicopter that took him to Mercy Hospital.<\/p>\n

The man\u2019s identity and health status were not released Wednesday in a news release from San Juan County\u2019s Office of Emergency Management.<\/p>\n

\"A
A patient needed to be lowered via a series of ropes through rough, technical terrain Tuesday in the Ice Lakes Trail area before being picked up by a Flight For Life helicopter. (Courtesy of Silverton Medical Rescue Team)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

People who witnessed the fall notified authorities using a portable satellite device.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entire mission took a little bit over seven hours,\u201d said DeAnne Gallegos, spokeswoman for the Office of Emergency Management.<\/p>\n

It took rescue workers only an hour to reach the patient from the trailhead, she said. It took another four hours to stabilize the patient and set up a rope rescue system to lower him through the steep, rocky terrain to a more accessible location. And it took another two hours to get a helicopter on scene as a result of storm conditions.<\/p>\n

Gallegos said those who recreate in the wilderness need to be aware of the risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we really, really want to stress is that everyone is recreating at their own risk,\u201d Gallegos said. \u201cThese amazing resources are not guaranteed nor always available, especially the helicopter.\u201d<\/p>\n

sedmondson@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

A previous version of this story erred in saying the rescue occurred Thursday. It occurred on Tuesday. The error was made in editing<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Flight for Life helicopter used to evacuate a man from the Ice Lakes Trail area east of Silverton on Tuesday. (Courtesy of DeAnne Gallegos)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

responders used rope rescue, helicopter to bring hiker to safety<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1152,28,976],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-21548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-emergency-incident","tag-headlines","tag-outdoor-recreation"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21548"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77357,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21548\/revisions\/77357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21548"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}