A 50-year-old woman from Oklahoma was with members of La Plata County Search and Rescue on the Purgatory Flats Trail at 8:20 p.m. Monday after she became lost while snowshoeing at the Durango Nordic Center.
She was uninjured but tired. Rescuers expected her to be extracted from the area by 11 p.m. by a team of five members, said Ron Corkish, Search and Rescue mission coordinator.
Corkish said the woman, whose name he could not release, was snowshoeing alone when she wandered off the Nordic Center trail, became disoriented and ended up on the Purgatory Flats Trail.
“She was not prepared to stay the night and knew enough to call 911,” Corkish said.
A Flight for Life helicopter was called, but the woman choose to come out of the area under her own power, Corkish said.
“It’s cold and dark, and they may take a rest coming out. We’re certainly not going to have anyone injured tonight, so we’ll take as long as necessary to be safe,” he said of the extraction plan.
Corkish said the woman started out on her hike around 1 p.m. and the call for assistance came in about 5:40 p.m.
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