A pair of expert skiers emerged from the woods on the east side of Aspen yesterday afternoon, after spending a night stranded in the backcountry in blizzard conditions.
Training for the rigorous Elk Mountains Grand Traverse - a backcountry ski race from Crested Butte to Aspen - Zeke Tiernan, 32, and Sean Thomas planned to ski up Express Creek from Ashcroft to Richmond Ridge and then down the face of Aspen Mountain on Sunday.
But the harsh weather made them change their plans. They stopped at the Barnard Hut near Richmond Ridge to rest, where other backcountry skiers were also holed up. They left the hut around 2:30 p.m. Sunday, planning to ski back to their car in Ashcroft.
But the men soon got lost in the whiteout conditions.
"When the weather and darkness came in, they got turned around and doubled back without knowing it," said Pitkin County Sheriff's Deputy Joe Bauer.
Though they had planned only a day trip and didn't have camping gear, they were able to make it through the night by building a fire and sleeping in a tree well. They had nothing substantive to eat but kept their energy up drinking Red Bull, eating flavored Gu and energy bars.
"We had a fire starter kit, which proved to be critical, a space blanket and we both had down coats but we definitely weren't planning on spending the night," Tiernan said.
Though the men were wet and the snow continued to fall hard throughout the night, overnight temperatures remained relatively warm.
"We were between two trees that were right next to each other. We didn't really sleep because we were stoking the fire for most of the night," Tiernan said. "It wasn't terribly cold considering it's the middle of winter but it was definitely too cold to sleep."
In the morning, he said, they drank water out of Difficult Creek.
Pitkin County sheriff's deputies and Mountain Rescue Aspen searched for them until 2:30 a.m. Monday, suspended the search and began again around 7:30 a.m. Because they had reportedly been heading back to Ashcroft, they concentrated on that area. A search plane from the T-Lazy-Seven ranch was deployed along with rescuers on skis and snowmobiles.
But it turned out the men didn't need that help.
Around 1 p.m. Monday, Tiernan was able to call his girlfriend on his cell phone.
"He got some reception but it was quick," Deputy Bauer said.
During the brief conversation, Tiernan said they were in the Difficult Creek area and they could see Red Mountain. From there the Aspen residents and frequent backcountry skiers knew the terrain well enough to make it to the Difficult campground and out of the woods.
Rescue teams were unable to contact them. When they finally did get in touch with them, they had already made it out of the woods, called for a ride and had gotten home on their own.
"These are extremely experienced guys who knew what they were doing out there," Deputy Bauer said.
Safe and sound Monday night, Tiernan was in good spirits but relieved the ordeal was over.
"It was intense, mostly because there were other people who didn't know what was going on or where we were," he said. "I've spent a lot of time outside in these particular mountains in my life and I didn't realize how quickly things can go bad in a hurry."
andrew@aspendailynews.com
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