Protect Your Cellphone Signal When Out In Backcountry, Colorado Search And Rescue Team Urges

(CBS4) -- The weather changes quickly in Colorado -- and Lake County Search and Rescue has some important advice for anyone heading out into the backcountry. They say it's a mistake that could be a matter of life or death.

"Our mission coordinators would tell you they wish they had a dime for every time a rescue subject's cellphone died just after the 911 call," officials in Lake County stated on Facebook.

That's exactly what happened on Sunday, Nov. 28. At approximately 8 p.m., LCSAR was notified of two hikers in distress on Mount Massive.

"The hikers said they needed help, but unfortunately their phone died before any more information could be communicated."

"A mission coordinator spent the night working with Colorado Search and Rescue Association coordinators to narrow down the subjects' location via cellphone forensics, but because the subjects' phones were dead, efforts in this area were met with only partial success."

A full scale search was launched at dawn the next morning.

Over 20 searchers from LCSAR, Chaffee County Search and Rescue North, and Summit County Rescue Group were on Mount Massive on Monday, while Flight For Life Colorado conducted aerial search.

Both subjects were found in the Half Moon Lakes Basin cold, hungry, and thirsty but otherwise in good condition, around 11 p.m. on Monday. They spent 34 hours in the backcountry without shelter.