Colorado search and rescue teams have made a record number of requests for helicopter hoists to start off the year — and the busiest stretch of the summer season is still ahead.

Colorado Search and Rescue Association public information officer Anna DeBattiste said that as of the end of June, backcountry rescue teams in the state had already made 18 requests for helicopter hoists, compared to just nine requests by that time last year.

“We don’t know why there have been more hoist requests,” DeBattiste said. “But we want to emphasize, it’s not an easy button you press because you’re tired or even because you’re completely exhausted. It’s a serious use of resources.”

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Helicopter hoists are performed by the Colorado Hoist Rescue Team, a collaboration between the state search and rescue association, the Colorado Army National Guard and local rescue groups with specially trained volunteers.

So far this year, the Colorado Hoist Rescue Team has been called for several missions on the state’s popular 14,000-foot peaks, also known as 14ers.

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On June 12, two hikers were airlifted from the summit of Torreys Peak after being struck by lightning in what has been widely reported as the highest elevation hoist operation on record in Colorado.

Another hoist operation occurred June 19 on Quandary Peak, after a father and son lost the trail on the 14er’s more technical west ridge route and became cliffed out in steep terrain where they could not climb up or down. The two hikers had to hunker down overnight before the Black Hawk helicopter could hoist them from the precarious spot the next morning.

Then, on June 25, a Black Hawk helicopter also hoisted two hikers from a steep cliffside where they had become stuck on Capitol Peak — the 14er with the most-difficult standard route, according to 14ers.com. The out-of-state hikers, both 19 years old, also had to spend the night on the mountainside, waiting until morning for rescue. Shortly after that, the same helicopter performed another hoist at Snowmass Lake the same day, rescuing a teenager experiencing a life-threatening case of altitude sickness.

“Helicopters are expensive and dangerous,” DeBattiste said. “We don’t just press a button and order them because it would make everyone’s life easier. There’s a detailed process for justifying the need and getting it approved.”

Coordinating hoists

In Colorado, helicopter hoists are only used in the most extreme circumstances, when life, limb or eyesight are threatened or when the terrain where someone is stuck is too dangerous for rescuers to access safely, DeBattiste said.

Calling for a helicopter hoist requires a lot of paperwork and close coordination between search and rescue volunteers, local law enforcement and federal aviation resources, DeBattiste said. It is resource intensive and — because of the risks involved — helicopters aren’t always a viable solution.

“If someone’s life is in danger. It’s warranted,” DeBattiste said. “Now, that doesn’t mean that it automatically gets approved. If the risk is greater to use a helicopter because of weather, or altitude, or visibility, or other aircraft in the area or its night time, there is a risk assessment that happens with every request. That request might be turned down no matter how serious the injuries are.”

Greg Foley, a Colorado Search and Rescue Association state coordinator and Grand County Search and Rescue volunteer, said that there are currently 16 state coordinators in Colorado with two coordinators working three-day shifts where they’re on call 24-7.

Calls for help in the backcountry typically start with a 911 call, which will alert the “authority having jurisdiction” — typically a sheriff’s office — to a situation, Foley said. If the local authority decides that a helicopter hoist may be necessary, they’ll contact the Colorado Search and Rescue Association to request a hoist, he said.

That’s where state coordinators like Foley come in.

“It could be 2 o’clock in the morning,” DeBattiste said. “Someone will respond within minutes. They get online and activate a whole electronic communication to start working with the details of the request and figuring out what we need to do to help.”

If there is a request for aviation support, Foley said he’d gather information including where the subject is located, what the situation is, what the injuries are and what search and rescue teams are already doing to address the situation. Then, he said he’d contact an aviation resource manager at the Buckley Space Force Base or High-altitude Army National Guard Training Site in Eagle. 

The aviation resource manager — who would be looped into the communications — also evaluates the situation, including the weather forecast, before determining whether a helicopter hoist is appropriate, Foley said. The aviation resources manager also has to receive a mission number from the Air Force Coordination Center in Florida, he said.

All this typically takes only about 10 or 15 minutes from the time of the 911 call, Foley said. But the rescue itself may take much longer.

Because of the increased danger of flying at night, the aviation resource manager will typically wait until morning to give authorization for a helicopter hoist, Foley said. Depending on other factors, including how far away the mission is and the weather, he said it could take several hours for a helicopter to arrive, if it’s authorized.

On its way enroute to the mission, Foley said the military helicopter has to pick up the rescue technicians — specially-trained volunteers with Vail Mountain Rescue Group, Rocky Mountain Rescue Group, Mountain Rescue Aspen and Alpine Rescue Team — who are the people who actually descend from the helicopter to assist those in trouble.

Once on scene, the helicopter can lower a rescue technician or two from the helicopter to tend to the subject and prepare them for extrication, Foley said. If the person loaded onto the helicopter requires hospitalization, he said the military helicopter will then have to hand the patient off to a medical helicopter or ambulance.

Even as all this happens, there is always a Plan B — with search and rescue volunteers going into the backcountry to assist in case the helicopter hoist doesn’t come to fruition due to weather or other circumstances, Foley said.

All told, he said that there could be dozens of people helping with a rescue. But in Colorado, all this happens for free.

“We don’t charge for rescue. We want people to call us,” Foley said. “We don’t want them to hesitate to call us or wait to call us until somebody’s life is in danger. Call us early. If you’re in trouble we’ll figure out how to make it happen.”

A busy season for ‘serious’ rescues

While the Colorado Search and Rescue Association doesn’t keep centralized statistics for the total number of calls for service received by local backcountry rescue teams, DeBattiste said, “Anecdotally, it seems busy.”

What the data does bear out is an increase in the number of missions that tend to be serious and resource-intensive, DeBattiste said. Through the end of June, local rescue teams this year have made 62 requests for assistance from the Colorado Search and Rescue Association’s state coordinators, compared to 47 requests this time last year and 49 this time in 2023, she said.

State coordinator assistance is requested when a local search and rescue team doesn’t have all the resources they need for a mission available in the county, DeBattiste said. The requests could be for mutual aid from another county, specialized help like cell phone forensics or a dog team, or aviation resources, she said.

“The fact that there are more requests for state coordinator assistance doesn’t mean call volume is higher,” DeBattiste said. “But it means calls are more serious, more complex, more critical.”

With the last of the snow still melting from many of Colorado’s peaks, she said the busy 14er climbing season is only just getting started and rescuers “expect that things really heat up in July.”

‘We want people to get outside’

With the busiest weeks of summer still ahead, DeBattiste said people who are recreating in the backcountry should make sure they are prepared with the proper training, gear and planning in order to stay safe.

Anyone heading into the backcountry should always carry the 10 essentials. It is also best to leave a detailed trip plan, including the route and when you expect to be back, behind with a friend or family member.

When researching routes online, DeBattiste said people should be thoughtful about what sources they use. She suggested using a trail app, rather than Google Maps, for route planning and searching for up-to-date information from sources like 14ers.com or Facebook groups where people discuss recent conditions.

In many cases where people get cliffed out, it’s because they were attempting to take a shortcut, DeBattiste said. But on Colorado’s mountainous terrain an area that looks like a shortcut is oftentimes a sheer cliff, so it’s always best to stick to the route, she said.

“There are no shortcuts on 14ers,” DeBattiste said. “If there was a shortcut, it would be the standard route. If you’re not an experienced technical climber, stick to the standard route.”

Foley recommended hikers carry a satellite communication device, like a Garmin InReach or Personal Locator Beacon, that will allow them to contact 911 to activate a search and rescue team in case of an emergency.

But even with the right planning and preparation, DeBattiste said things can go wrong in the backcountry, so hikers shouldn’t hesitate to call for help if they find themselves in need of it.

“Volunteer responders in Colorado don’t wish that people would stay out of the mountains,” DeBattiste said. “We want people to come visit us. We want people to get outside. We want people to enjoy themselves. We’re supporters of the outdoor recreation and tourism industries. We just want people to be educated and plan and do their due diligence.”