15-Year-Old Alone on Kit Carson Peak: A 200-Foot Fall | E262

A 15-year-old hiker set out on an ambitious three-day backpacking trip through Colorado’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains, planning to summit four 14ers. He successfully climbed Challenger Point and Kit Carson Peak. Then his route took him into terrain he apparently did not realize was a technical mountaineering route.Halfway down the steep, snow-covered Outward Bound Couloir, his backpack began sliding away. He went after it—and fell roughly 200 feet.In this episode of The Crux: True Survival Stories, Kaycee and Julie retrace what brought the teenager into the couloir, the limitations of relying on Google Maps in the backcountry, and the search-and-rescue operation that followed. It’s a story about route finding, steep-snow travel, a split-second decision, and what happens when an ambitious wilderness trip suddenly becomes a survival situation.Timestamps00:00 — A Teenager, a 14er and a Snow Couloir.

00:27 — Trouble in the Outward Bound Couloir

02:47 — The 15-Year-Old Behind the Rescue

05:21 — Climbing Toward Challenger Point

09:10 — Route Finding on Kit Carson Peak

11:44 — Crossing the Mountains Without a Trail

13:39 — When Google Maps Meets the Backcountry

15:01 — Inside the Outward Bound Couloir

18:03 — The Backpack Slides—and He Goes After It

22:16 — Injured at 13,000 Feet: Calling 911

23:22 — Search and Rescue Heads Into the Mountains

26:00 — The 200-Foot Technical Lower