(SALIDA, Colo.) — An insurance underwriter who was rescued on a central Colorado mountain after allegedly being left behind by his co-workers was hiking to raise money for World Central Kitchen, according to his company.
The hiker, 46-year-old Steve Stephanides, was rescued on Saturday after enduring a night stuck on 14,230-foot Mt. Shavano during a freezing rain storm, officials said.
Contacted by ABC News on Wednesday, Stephanides said his company, the Beazley global insurance firm, was still gathering facts about the expedition and referred all questions to his company’s spokesperson.
Breazley CEO Adrian Cox, who is based in London, released a statement Thursday morning to ABC News, praising the Chaffee County Search and Rescue — South, an all volunteer rescue team in Colorado, for saving his employee’s life.
“We are very grateful to the Chaffee County Search and Rescue South who came to the aid of one of our employees after he encountered difficulties during a charity hike. Chaffee County SAR’s swift response and brave actions, during adverse weather conditions, ensured that our colleague was rescued and returned safely,” Cox said.
A spokesperson for Beazely confirmed to ABC News that company employees were on Mt. Shavano as a part of an annual charity hiking trip to raise money for World Central Kitchen, the nonprofit humanitarian organization founded in 2010 by celebrity chef José Andrés to deliver meals in disaster areas around the globe, including war zones in Ukraine and Gaza.
“This charity hike has been running for over a decade and many individuals have participated on multiple occasions,” Cox said. “We are proud of their commitment to their fundraising efforts and will continue to work with those involved to ensure they fully recover from this incident and get the support they need.”
Cox did not provide additional details on how the near-tragedy occurred on the annual office charity hike.
“In what might cause some awkward encounters at the office in the coming days and weeks, one member of their party was left to complete his final summit push alone,” Chaffee County Search and Rescue — South said in a statement.
Previous online posts and photos from Beazely colleagues indicate that this was at least the second year in a row Stephanides has participated in the charity hike.
The office outing gone wrong unfolded Friday on Mt. Shavano in central Colorado’s San Isabel National Forest, according to Danny Andres, president of the volunteer rescue group.
“Our subject was getting close to the summit and took a break, and some of the people who were in his group were starting to head down,” Danny Andres told ABC’s “Good Morning America” Thursday. “He decided to carry on up the summit.”
While 14 employees made it down the mountain safely, rescue officials said one was left to complete the summit solo. Andres said the worker made it to the summit at 11:30 a.m., but when he tried to descend, he became “disoriented as to where the trail was.”
The hiker used his cellphone to pin-drop his location to his co-workers, who informed him that he was on the wrong route and instructed him to hike back up to the summit to get to the correct trail down, rescue officials said in a statement.
“In his initial attempts to descend, he found himself in the steep boulder and scree field on the northeast slopes toward Shavano Lake,” according to officials.
Just before 4 p.m. local time on Friday, Stephanides sent another location pin-drop to his colleagues that he was near the correct trail. Shortly after that message, a strong storm passed through the area with freezing rain and high winds, rescue officials said in a statement.
“Being in those kind of cold, freezing rain, winds it takes a toll on you,” Andres said.
At least seven different rescue teams from across Colorado were involved in the search for Stephanides.
Stephanides also lost his cellphone reception on the way down the mountain, and following his rescue, told lifesavers he had fallen at least 20 times on the steep slopes and was unable to get up the last time he fell.
Making matters worse, Stephanides’ colleagues had inexplicably collected belongings left in a boulder field to mark the path down, officials said.
When his colleagues didn’t hear from him, they reported Stephanides missing at 9 p.m., some eight-and-a-half hours after he started his descent, officials said.
Rescue teams found Stephanides in a gully near a drainage creek and carried him down the mountain on a gurney, officials said. He was and taken to a hospital in stable condition, officials said.
Rescuers said Stephanides was “phenomenally lucky” that the weather cleared on Saturday and he regained enough cellphone service to call 911.
“All of the teams that were involved are all volunteer rescuers,” Andres said. “It’s tiring, but it’s rewarding when we go out and find people and are able to reunite them with their loved ones. It’s fantastic.”
ABC News’ Laryssa Demkiw and Emme Marchese contributed to this report.
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