On October 1st David made his first attempt at climbing one of Colorado’s 14ers (a m0untain who’s peak is over 14,000′ above sea level), he made this attempt with his friends Luke and Elizabeth. The weather was perfect and things were going well until they neared the summit, that is when altitude sickness hit David. Altitude sickness consists of headaches, dizziness, confusion and in more extreme cases nausea. David knew that even though the summit was within sight that he could not make it so he sat down to rest while Luke and Elizabeth summited the mountain. On their way down David noticed that his wedding band was missing. The group checked their photos of their hike and the last photo of David on a saddle near where they currently were standing he had his ring on. So they knew that his ring had to be within a couple hundred feet or so but hidden amongst the boulders. Luke and Elizabeth returned to the spot where David had stopped and searched for the ring, no luck. On their way down the mountain David’s altitude sickness continued and add to that the anxiety of losing his wedding band.
David contacted me that following week and arranged for me to meet up Luke and Elizabeth to retrace his steps back up the mountain and search for his ring. I brought with me two of my lightest detectors to take up the mountain to search for David’s ring. The hike is 3 1/2 miles with a vertical gain of over 2,800′ to the summit. We met at 7:30 AM and began our hike/ climb, the first mile and a half were pretty easy the next couple of miles were taxing. When we reached the area where the photo of David with his ring still on, I broke out my Teknetics T2 and gave that to Luke. I spent a few minutes with him teaching him the sounds of the machine and how to properly swing the machine. Elizabeth continued up the mountain to the point where David had stopped his climb. Upon reaching her I set up my Minelab GoFind 60 and spent a few minutes teaching Elizabeth to detect and the sounds of the machine. I then continued my climb and summited the mountain (it would have been a shame to make it that far and not summit). When I returned to the area where Elizabeth was searching she handed me the detector and she began pulling snow from the areas that were deeper than the detector could reach. Luke had made his way up the mountain and was searching this area as well. After over a half hour of searching we decided to start making our way down the mountain. Just then Luke comes around the rock that David had sat on and saaw the wedding band peeking out of it’s hiding spot. High fives were given and several photos were taken. I checked my GPS and the ring was recovered at 13,840′ above sea level.
Ring recovered 10-8-2016 (elevation 13,840′)
Luke and I at the recovery site
Look through the center of the ring at the mountain, that is the approximate location of the recovery site.
David gets his ring back.
