A Colorado search and rescue team helped two hikers who became stuck on Telluride’s via ferrata route.
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The two women began the technical route at approximately 6:30 p.m. Saturday and became stuck on a cliff on the canyon walls that tower above the southwestern Colorado town. A via ferrata route requires the use of climbing equipment and clipping into a metal cable to traverse narrow ledges and steep rock walls using iron rungs and handholds.
The San Miguel County Search and Rescue team responded to the hikers’ call for help at 9:55 p.m. Saturday, according to the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office. The rescue team attempted to verbally guide the women down the route but, when that failed, sent a team to help them rappel down.
The rescue mission lasted approximately four hours. Neither hiker was injured, according to the sheriff’s office.
The women, one from Utah and one from Idaho, did not carry food, water or adequate clothing layers. Neither had experience with a via ferrata route.
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“These two hikers could have spent the night stranded on the cliffs, cold, frightened and at risk of injury or worse had it not been for our dedicated and highly skilled SAR team,” San Miguel County Undersheriff Nick Xavier said in a news release. “People need to exercise better judgment and be appropriately experienced and prepared before attempting terrain this technical.”
Telluride’s via ferrata requires technical climbing abilities, according to the Telluride Mountain Club. Those without significant climbing experience should hire a guide as an accident on the route could be fatal.
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