Drone Drops Flashlight to Stranded 19-Year-Old on Colorado 14er, Helping Rescuers Beat the Storm

Late last month, a 19-year-old hiker went missing on Quandary Peak, a 14er (a mountain with a summit over 14,000 ft) in Summit County, Colorado, as winter weather closed in. After a call came in for an “overdue hiker”, a search team set out to locate him using a drone with a thermal camera, and then dropped a flashlight near his position. That single light made it easier for rescuers to close the distance and ultimately find the hiker.

Thermal Spotting First, then the “Light Drop”

Drones being used to search for lost hikers is nothing new for DroneXL, but this incident stuck with me. It’s the first one in recent events that I can recall ever utilizes a dropped payload to help out someone in need.

Quandary Peak is often described as one of the more straightforward Colorado 14ers in good conditions, but winter in Colorado can be described as anything but good conditions.

Wind, blowing snow, poor visibility, freezing temperatures, and the sheer effort of moving on a 14er all stack the odds against you. As humans, we need to use up more energy to achieve the same result at a high altitude, whether it be running a mile or just walking a few feet.

Due to changes in altitude, a drone flying at 14,000 feet would need to exert significantly more thrust to produce the same amount of lift. This means the rescue team would need to be very selective about their search route, battery use, and when they launch.

The hiker also had a compounding problem: he did not have a reliable light source once night set in, and his phone battery was nearly dead.

So, they launched a drone. After locating him from the air, the team improvised something they had not done before: they rigged a flashlight to the drone and dropped it close to his position. Officials said it landed within roughly 50 to 100 feet of him, close enough to recover quickly.

First, it gave the hiker a usable light so he could orient himself and move more safely. Second, it gave rescuers something to pinpoint in the dark, otherwise the person would have remained hidden until rescuers were right on top of him.

Instead of searching into a dark mountainside with limited landmarks, the team was able to coordinate with the drone operator to pinpoint his location. Summit County officials credited the flashlight with guiding him back toward the trail and helping rescuers locate him faster.

DroneXL’s Take

Having lived in Colorado for years, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the young man in this story is extremely lucky to be alive. I lived in a small town just outside of the Rocky Mountains, and the amount of people that get stranded out there every year is insanely high, but not surprising.

The visibility and temperature can drop to zero in a couple of minutes, combined with a very high elevation, equals a recipe for a missing hiker. This is one of the rescue stories I love to hear about though, because it highlights just one way drones can have a positive impact on our society.

Even fifteen years ago, this incident would have had a drastically different outcome. The fact that search-and-rescue personnel were able to receive a call, deploy a drone, and find the person in under 12 hours is a testament to the idea that we’re moving in the right direction with drone technology.

If you do any kind of SAR planning, this is a reminder to think beyond spotting. Start building playbooks around micro-deliveries, and start testing homemade dropping mechanisms so that you’re already prepared when the time comes to try out a new rescue strategy.

Know of any stories involving drone-related Search-and-Rescue? Share them with me in the comments below!