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GARFIELD COUNTY — A hiker reported missing in the Flat Tops Wilderness Area of northwest Colorado was found unhurt on Saturday.
The Garfield County Sheriff's Department said Monday that search and rescue teams found 33-year-old Thad Green Childs III of the Copper Mountain area late Saturday afternoon.
He was reported missing Saturday morning after taking off on a solo hike at midday Friday. Childs left fellow campers at their Stillwater Reservoir camp, southwest of Yampa, intending to hike onto the Flattops in northeast Garfield County. Garfield and Routt counties responded with rescue teams.
Heavy snowpack remained in the higher terrain, but tracks believed to be made by the missing hiker were found heading toward the ridgeline northwest of Stillwater Reservoir, the sheriff's office said. A helicopter joined in the search at about 1 p.m. Saturday and tracks were spotted in the snowfields along the ridgeline in an area known as the Devil's Causeway — a narrow ridgeline. Searchers were flown to the higher terrain and the search continued from the air.
At about 5 p.m., a ground searcher who had been picked up by the helicopter spotted a lone hiker on an open ridge north of the Causeway. He was picked up, tired, but in good health, just before crews were to call off the day's search, according to the sheriff's office. He was taken back to camp.
The Garfield County Sheriff's Department said Monday that search and rescue teams found 33-year-old Thad Green Childs III of the Copper Mountain area late Saturday afternoon.
He was reported missing Saturday morning after taking off on a solo hike at midday Friday. Childs left fellow campers at their Stillwater Reservoir camp, southwest of Yampa, intending to hike onto the Flattops in northeast Garfield County. Garfield and Routt counties responded with rescue teams.
Heavy snowpack remained in the higher terrain, but tracks believed to be made by the missing hiker were found heading toward the ridgeline northwest of Stillwater Reservoir, the sheriff's office said. A helicopter joined in the search at about 1 p.m. Saturday and tracks were spotted in the snowfields along the ridgeline in an area known as the Devil's Causeway — a narrow ridgeline. Searchers were flown to the higher terrain and the search continued from the air.
At about 5 p.m., a ground searcher who had been picked up by the helicopter spotted a lone hiker on an open ridge north of the Causeway. He was picked up, tired, but in good health, just before crews were to call off the day's search, according to the sheriff's office. He was taken back to camp.
