Denver climber seriously injured after being struck by microwave-sized rock on 14er in southern Colorado

A climber sustained serious injuries last week after being struck by a microwave-sized rock on a fourteener outside Alamosa.

The incident occurred the morning of July 27 on Little Bear Peak, a 14,037-foot mountain in the Sangre de Cristo range.

Another climber, her husband and a third individual had stopped for a snack near the base of the hourglass on the mountain when they heard “the most loud thunder imaginable from above,” the witness wrote on Facebook.

A boulder, sized between a microwave and a dishwasher, tumbled down from the summit along with other large rocks, the woman wrote. The woman and her husband managed to duck behind some cliff bands, but they watched another climber to their right tumble some 30 feet down the steep slope.

The group called 911. The man was unconscious.

The Alamosa Volunteer Search and Rescue team responded with the help of a Colorado Army National Guard helicopter. Emergency personnel flew the man to a hospital in Colorado Springs.

Family identified the injured man as Ben Jamieson, a Denver husband and father of two young children.

Jamieson’s brother, in a GoFundMe page, said Ben is “fighting for his life” with a “major injury to his skull and brain.”

On Monday, the family said Jamieson has been coming closer and closer to consciousness, able to squeeze family members’ hands. He was undergoing a tracheostomy to allow air to fill his lungs.

“Our hope is to see more progress tomorrow, as we hope every day,” the family wrote.

Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter.

(Visited 2 times, 1 visits today)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *