The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Rescued by ski patrol that evening
A snowboarder skiing Teo I at Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) ducked under a rope on Wednesday, January 21 and spent several hours trying to hike his way out of the basin. Ski Patrol located and found the rider that evening, and all was well in the end.
An experienced Colorado skier who attended Western State Colorado University, Jesse Ebert was skiing at the resort to celebrate his recent engagement. Toward the end of the day, he skied Teo I alone. CBMR spokesperson Michael Kraatz explained that the snowboarder’s fiancé reported him missing around 4 p.m., at which point Ski Patrol initiated a search of the base area.
“We typically do a base area search into Butte 66, the Avalanche and other facilities that are open to see if the individual happens to be hanging around, and if we know where they’re staying, check with lodging and see if they’ve gone back to their room,” Kraatz said.
In this case, Ski Patrol was not able to locate the rider at the base area and they began a perimeter search. A patroller noticed a snowboard track going under the rope at the bottom of Teocalli Bowl, and lift ops was mobilized to get more patrollers on the mountain.
According to Kraatz, Ski Patrol made verbal contact with the rider around 6 p.m. and asked him to stay put until they could reach him. “At some point he decided he was going to move again and then he started to go [toward the voice he’d heard], and it was right around 8 p.m. that they finally regained contact with him,” Kraatz said.
Ski Patrol gave the rider water and snacks, and then had him hike out on snowshoes. Ebert told the resort that he’d been confused about where to go and had seen ski tracks under the rope. He thought they belonged to skiers he’d seen ahead of him on the High Lift and followed them (for the rider’s account of his experience, see page 5.) It turned out they were Ski Patrol tracks.
“He certainly wasn’t looking to purposely go outside the boundaries to find additional powder stashes. It was late in the day and he just made a bad decision,” Kraatz said.
