A life saved at 13,000 feet: Terre Haute group comes to rescue of fallen climber in Colorado

By Brian M. Boyce

Perched on a mountainside about 13,000 feet above sea level alongside an injured, bleeding fall victim, one’s mind tends to race a bit over a 12-hour span.

“I spent a lot of time praying,” Craig Reynolds recalled from the living room of his home off Terre Haute’s northside.

And perhaps the prayers worked. A man’s life was saved in the end.

Reynolds, 52, had taken five novice climbers to Colorado’s Rocky Mountain range for what would be his 57th trip up those peaks the week of July 6 through 10. More than 27 years of climbing, he’s hit 35 of Colorado’s 54 peaks over 14,000 feet.

“I’d like to climb them all,” he said.

But that wasn’t his primary concern two weeks ago.

It had been a long Monday morning climbing San Luis before the group went to the Crestone Area to approach Challenger Point, camping there and reaching the point Tuesday about 1:30 p.m.

Reynolds remembers meeting an older man on the way back down, describing him as “spent,” noting that he was hiking alone, which is unusual.

While “plunge-stepping” back down part of the mountain, two of Reynolds’ party were straggling down the 75-feet declining “boulder field” with 45- to 50-degree slopes.

While waiting on the slower two, Reynolds and others heard screams for help from further up the mountain.

“Had we been five minutes further we never would have heard him,” he said.

Reynolds and Jesse Houghtalen climbed 2,000 feet back up to about 13,000 feet, where they found the older man they’d met earlier.

“It looked like someone had sprayed the rocks with red paint,” he said, describing the slip and tumble which sent 64-year-old Colorado native Roy Knoedler sprawling down the boulders through snow and frozen ground.

Reynolds and Houghtalen propped him up the best they could without moving him too much, gave him water and began layering him with all the clothes they could scramble out of his pack. Wrapping him in blankets, they tried to keep him warm in the 40-degree, afternoon mountain air, knowing temperatures would drop into the 30s by nightfall. A gash ran from Knoedler’s scalp to his eyeball, and the skin was peeling back to reveal part of his skull.

Butch Bosworth and other members of their group stayed below, trying to call 911 from the remote mountain location. The first helicopter did not arrive until about 6:30 p.m.

But that helicopter circled the mountainous incline five to six times before deciding there was nowhere to land, leaving Reynolds and Houghtalen waving orange jackets in the air as it returned to base.

By 12:30 a.m. Reynolds said he could hear low-flying aircraft ahead, circling at about 14,000, not much higher than they were, and then the distinctive “whomp, whomp, whomp” of a CH-47 Chinook helicopter from Buckley Air Force Base came upon them.

The helicopter hovered above the group as a flight medic came down a cable, adjusting Knoedler onto a stretcher and hoisting it and the rescuers into the aircraft. By about 2:30 a.m. the group was in the helicopter and headed for civilization, nearly 12 hours after the fall.

Later the crew chief told him, “You two guys saved that man’s life tonight.”

Reynolds described Knoedler as a “very experienced” climber, having lodged 39 of the big peaks himself. The veteran climber had originally just meant to hike and camp in the area before making a last-minute decision to go up Challenger Point on his own, Reynolds said.

One slip later, he had air bubbles and blood on the brain, a fractured skull, broken arms and a few lost teeth.

But with views like that of Willow Lake and its 200-foot water fall, it’s hard to blame the guy for trying, and Reynolds said he plans on heading out again next August himself. “I usually go out every summer.”

He spent Saturday cycling in the all-day RAIN event and likes to stay active.

His wife, Carole, said, “I would say if anyone had to get hurt out there, Craig would be the one to be around.”

Knoedler would probably agree.

Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.

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