Fremont County rescuers waste a night in the backcountry

If you’re heading into the backcountry, be sure to tell somebody your plans and let them know where you are. That’s the advice from Fremont County Search and Rescue, whose volunteers spent Wednesday night and Thursday morning looking for a man who was actually on his way home to Colorado.

In the middle of the region’s first major snowstorm, members of the unit were called to Hale Canyon, northeast of Ashton at around 7:30 pm Wednesday to help locate a missing 43 year old Fort Collins, Colo., man. Private vehicles, four-wheelers, ATVs, and an Ashton search dog combed the area until 4:30 a.m. Thursday.

The search was temporarily suspended, but started again about 8 a.m. The search was called off half an hour later when would be rescuers learned their “victim” was well on his way home to Colorado.