Separated From Co-Workers, Man Endures Freezing Night in the Rockies Before Rescue

A Florida man on a corporate retreat became separated from his co-workers during a hike in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado last Friday, leaving him missing in the wilderness for a day and forcing him to brave a bitter storm overnight before being rescued, search and rescue authorities said.

“He’s lucky to be alive,” Evan Brady, public information office for Chaffee County Search and Rescue South, said of the man, Steve Stephanides, of Apopka, Fla.

At sunrise last Friday, Mr. Stephanides, 47, and 14 of his co-workers at Beazley, a London-based global insurance firm, started on a popular trail hike to the summit of Mount Shavano, a 14,000-foot peak about 75 miles west of Colorado Springs, Chaffee County Search and Rescue South said in a statement. During the trek, Mr. Stephanides stopped for a break while his co-workers continued on the route, Mr. Brady said.

Mr. Stephanides restarted his journey and reached the summit of Mt. Shavano alone, Mr. Brady said in a phone interview on Thursday. But when he reached the summit, Mr. Stephanides became disoriented and, because the trail is naturally rugged and at times unclear, he began to descend the mountain the wrong way, Mr. Brady said.

With some spotty phone service, Mr. Stephanides sent his location to co-workers, who were already descending, the county’s statement said. “These co-workers informed him his route was wrong and to climb back up the slope to regain the trail.”

As he tried to find his way to the correct trail on Friday, Mr. Stephanides sent his co-workers at least one more location pin from his phone, but became further disoriented. About 9 p.m., Chaffee County Search and Rescue South was alerted about Mr. Stephanides’s status as a missing hiker and used search teams and a drone pilot to try to find him. Ten local volunteer and professional search teams, as well as helicopters, were deployed to assist.

But rescue efforts were thwarted Friday night because of a “brutal” storm that rolled into the mountain range, Mr. Brady said.

“Teams encountered high winds and freezing rain, which made reaching the summit unsafe, and presented many difficulties for the drone operator,” the county’s statement said.

Although rescue groups got to the summit and tracked the trail he had been on, Mr. Stephanides’s efforts to find the trail had moved him further off course, Mr. Brady said.

Mr. Stephanides was able to make it through the cold, wet night with a wind chill that brought the temperatures on the mountain to the high 20s or low 30s, Mr. Brady said.

The weather cleared up on Saturday, but a fatigued Mr. Stephanides fell at least 20 times on wet rocks, including one fall from which he could not get back up, he later told the county rescue team. While on the ground, he was able to call 911, which provided emergency teams with a “solid location” to search for, the county search team said. Rescue workers found him by noon.

“This hiker was phenomenally lucky to have regained cell service when he did, and to still have enough consciousness and wherewithal to call 911,” the statement said.

Mr. Stephanides, an underwriter for Beazley based out of Florida, declined to comment, according to his wife, Amy.

In statement, Adrian Cox, Beazley’s chief executive, expressed his gratitude for the search and rescue teams that were able to locate “one of our employees after he encountered difficulties during a charity hike.”

Mr. Stephanides is hardly the first person to get lost in the area. The trails are rocky and the landmarks are not always obvious.

“We get a ton of missions up there of people getting disoriented,” Mr. Brady said.

On social media, commenters cracked jokes over how his co-workers left him behind — a narrative that was supported in part by the county’s statement writing that Mr. Stephanides “was left to complete his final summit push alone” and that the debacle “might cause some awkward encounters at the office.”

But Mr. Brady said the idea that Mr. Stephanides had been abandoned was overblown and instead said that it was a good reminder never to venture into the wild alone.

America’s most beautiful areas can also be its most dangerous. Earlier this month, a woman was missing in the Colorado mountains for four days before being found alive.

Susan C. Beachy contributed research.