A walker, stranded in the forests of northern New Mexico and suffering from “dangerously low” body temperature was rescued after two weeks on his own, authorities said Tuesday.
Another walker, identified as John Utsey, and his daughter came upon the man and called for help on Saturday, according to the Santa Fe Fire Department.
The unidentified walker, a man in his 50s, was sitting in a steep ravine that was barely visible and even harder to reach.
“He was lying deep in a ravine, not even on a track,” Brian Moya Assistant Chief Brian Moya told NBC News. “It’s the bottom of a canyon that was inaccessible. If you were walking on a path, you would not have seen or heard it.”
The search immediately provided food and water to the lost hiker and built a fire for him when they arrived from Windsor Trail on Sunday, officials said.
“They built a fire to raise the body temperature of the man, who was dangerously low, fed him and gave him water,” according to a statement from the fire department. “The man was suffering from chronic back pain and injured his back again while walking and could not stand or walk.”
The hiker was lost in Santa Fe National Forest and the Santa Fe Ski Basin, about 15 miles north of downtown Santa Fe. It is a popular ski resort in winter, a hiking and camping site in summer.
The high temperature in Santa Fe has risen 89 degrees every day this month. But at such high altitudes, night temperatures regularly dropped in the 1930s.
“Where he was, about 12,000 feet, 10,000 feet, so he was far above” the 7,200-foot elevation of central Santa Fe, Moya said. “That it gets very cold there, even in the summer.”
He was taken to hospital and expected to survive his injuries from the ordeal.
Kathryn Prociv contributed.
