Back-Country Rescues Strain Colorado Counties

Business is booming in Routt County, and Sheriff John Warner isn’t happy about it.

While many Colorado ski areas fret about below-average snowpacks, Steamboat Springs and the rest of the northern mountain resorts are enjoying plenty of snow. That means more skiers, snowboarders and snowmobilers.

More business for local merchants.

And more back-country visitors getting lost or caught in dangerous situations, requiring more searches and rescues by Warner’s staff and volunteers.

“We’re rockin’ and rollin’,” Warner said.

“A lot of our members are getting overwhelmed because search and rescue is becoming a much bigger part of their lives,” said Jamie Neault, president of the Routt County team.

Routt County Search and Rescue received 15 calls in January. The average number of calls a year is 45.

In Summit County, home to Breckenridge, Copper Mountain and Keystone, the number of searches has ranged from 130 to 140 the past few years; the total for the first month of 2000 was about 15.

Average, though, still means busy, said Sheriff Joe Morales. Two recent missions involved an overnight search for a man and his 2 1/2-year-old daughter who became lost while snowmobiling near Vail Pass, and the recovery of a snowboarder’s body after he and companions touched off an avalanche west of the Arapahoe Basin ski area.

Six people have died in snowslides this winter. About one-third of the 514 avalanche deaths reported from 1950 through 1997 in the United States were in Colorado.

The sheriffs in Colorado’s 63 counties are responsible for searches and rescues under state law. Most ski areas and mountains at least 14,000 feet or higher, are in rural counties that cannot afford many trained rescue personnel or extensive searches requiring helicopters and Sno-Cats.

Sheriffs depend on volunteers to help rescue back-country skiers.

The number of rescues statewide runs from 1,300 to 1,400 a year, according to the Colorado State Rescue Board.

Warner expects those figures to increase as Colorado’s population grows and interest rises in cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, mountain biking, white-water rafting and rock climbing.

“Our state has wonderful amenities. A lot of the people moving in are in their mid-20s to early 40s, and I think a lot of those folks are coming to Colorado to enjoy those amenities,” Morales said.

Outdoors enthusiasts in metropolitan Denver and along the Front Range of the Rockies reach the central mountains by heading west on Interstate 70.

“In under an hour, you can be in wilderness,” Morales said.

The counties get some help with rescue costs from a 25-cent surcharge on hunting and fishing licenses and registration fees on snowmobiles and boats. Revenue from a voluntary hiking certificate, which costs $1 a year, also goes into a fund distributed by the state Department of Local Affairs.

The agency awarded counties about $448,000 last year. Rescues of people who contributed to the fund through license fees or the hiking certificate get first priority for state reimbursement.

Tim Sarmo, who administers the fund, said the money doesn’t cover all the costs. The Summit County search for the snowmobiler and his daughter, for example, cost about $10,000.

But the fund helps. Sarmo said the goal is to better market the hiking certificate, especially since back-country use is increasing while revenue from hunting and fishing licenses is dropping.

Volunteer teams raise much of their own money through donations and fund-raisers, said Keith Conquest, administrative coordinator for the Colorado Search and Rescue Board.

Some suggest billing people who take foolish chances. But authorities don’t want to run the risk of wayward skiers or climbers taking even more chances because they don’t want to be charged.