Sean Moye, a complaints and inquiry clerk in Denver, was hiking on remote terrain with his wife and another couple on a spring day two years ago in Teller County, CO, when they made a startling discovery:
A man was barely alive as he lay in snow alongside the trail with a pool of vomit, a bottled beverage and an unlabeled pill bottle beside him, suggesting a drug overdose.
The couple with the Moyes climbed to another peak to get a cellphone signal, called 911 and provided GPS coordinates.
Then, concerned that the location wasn’t accessible to an ambulance, the quartet of hikers used a tarp and rope to pull the man 2 miles toward a parking area.
A man on the scene there offered to use his four-wheel drive truck to help responding paramedics reach the victim.
As they made their way, a snowstorm rolled in, further complicating the rescue, but they eventually located the hikers and transported the victim back to the ambulance.
He was hospitalized for treatment of an overdose and hypothermia, and he recovered from the incident.
The hikers and the truck driver were later recognized with the EMS Association of Colorado’s Citizen Rescuer Award for Valor.