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Mountain Rescue Aspen finds father, son safe at Sugar Bowls

A father and son reported overdue from a hike to the Sugar Bowls Thursday night were found safe by Mountain Rescue Aspen. The Sugar Bowls are a series of open meadows between West Buttermilk and the eastern edge of the Snowmass Ski Area.

The pair, a 40-year-old male and his 12-year-old son, were dropped at the base of West Buttermilk at approximately 6:15 p.m. They were planning to hike to the base of the Sugar Bowls to drop camping gear and then hike back out on Government Trail, according to a Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office press release. At approximately 8:45 p.m., the wife of the man received a  phone call from her husband stating that the hikers had gone “off trail” and then the phone went dead. The reporting party was unable to regain contact with her husband.

Mountain Rescue Aspen and the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office deployed two ground teams of MRA volunteers. The second group team reached the overdue parties at approximately 3:45 .m. about 200-300 vertical feet above Government Trail. The duo was able to walk out on their own.

The overdue parties were well equipped for the outdoors and had made a fire and hunkered down for the night when they realized they were lost.

The Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office and Mountain Rescue Aspen would like to remind all backcountry users to always be equipped with proper navigation tools when leaving established trails.