[ad_1]
A hiker, stranded in the woods of northern New Mexico and suffering from a “dangerously low” body temperature, was rescued after two weeks by himself, authorities said Tuesday.
Another hiker, identified as John Utsey, and his daughter ran into the man and called for help on Saturday, according to the Santa Fe fire department.
The unidentified hiker, a man in his 50s, was in a steep ravine that was difficult to see and even harder to reach.
“He was in a deep ravine, not even on a runway,” Brian Moya, deputy chief of the Santa Fire Department, told NBC News. “It’s the bottom of a hard-to-reach canyon. If you were on a hiking trail, you wouldn’t have seen or heard it.”
The search team immediately gave the lost hiker food and water and set him on fire when they arrived off the Windsor Trail on Sunday, officials said.
“They lit a fire to raise the man’s body temperature which was dangerously low, fed him and gave him water,” according to a statement from the fire department. “The man suffered from chronic back pain and again injured his back while hiking and could not stand or walk.”
The hiker got lost in the Santa Fe National Forest and Santa Fe Ski Basin, about 15 miles north of downtown Santa Fe. It is a popular ski area in the winter, a great hiking spot. and camping in summer.
The high temperature in Santa Fe has exceeded 89 degrees every day this month. But at such a high altitude, nighttime temperatures drop steadily into the 1930s.
“Where it was, about 12,000 feet, 10,000 feet, so it was way above” the 7,200 foot elevation of central Santa Fe, Moya said. “So it’s really cold up there, even in summer.”
He was rushed to hospital and is expected to survive his injuries from the ordeal.
Kathryn prociv contributed.
[ad_2]
Source link