Mountain rescue teams in Colorado started the week by issuing safety warnings to hikers after two separate incidents resulted in overnight rescue missions over the weekend. In both cases, solo hikers were attempting to climb 14ers – mountains over 14,000 feet high – when they became cliffed out and found themselves unable to climb higher or descend.
The first call came in on Saturday evening when a hiker used his cell phone to report that he was cliffed out on Quandary Peak near Breckenridge. Quandary is generally considered one of the easiest 14ers in the state to climb, but only when it's climbed by the standard East Ridge route. According to reporting in the Summit Daily, this hiker was near the summit on the West Ridge, which entails a Class 3 climb according to 14ers.com, and he had boxed himself in.
