After a 47 year old climber from Denver took a tumble during a summit attempt of a 13,000 foot peak south of Aspen, he was on the fence whether or not to activate his emergency beacon to signal rescuers.
The Aspen Times reports Bill Wood was on a snowfield 700 feet below Cathedral Peak’s summit Sunday when he lost his footing and tumbled 150 feet injuring his ankle. He debated whether or not to use his Spot Device to hail rescuers and ultimately activated the personal tracker with a push of a button notifying emergency services of his GPS location and need assistance.
Emergency dispatchers received the signal at 7:45 a.m. and volunteers from Mountain Rescue Aspen headed towards his location immediately while a medical helicopter was sent out from Frisco. The helicopter flew over the location of the signal and located the two people at 13,200 feet on the east face of Cathedral Peak and confirmed that one person was injured.
MRA personnel reached the climbers at 11:38 a.m. and assisted with the airlift of the injured man. Bill Wood was transported to the hospital and treated for his injured ankle and cuts and bruises sustained during the fall.