Hiker lost for 24 hours ignored rescuers' calls because they came from an unknown number

A hiker has been ridiculed after ignoring rescue calls because they were an unknown number after getting lost in a Colorado mountain.

Hiking can be great to clear the mind and recharge your batteries, but this one hiker might not have been thinking clearly, it seems.

A hiker has been getting mocked on social media after a story detailed that they got lost on the highest peak in the state of Colorado, Mount Elbert, back on October 18, 2021.

Lucky for them, their identity has never been revealed.

According to Lake County Search and Rescue, the individual was reported missing at 8pm after starting their hike at around 9am on the same day.

When search crews went looking for them, there was no trace of the person, so they concluded they had walked off the trail and had likely spent the night trying to find it again.

Thankfully, after 24 hours of being lost, they found the trail and found their car, seemingly completely unaware that a rescue effort had even been searching for them.

Mount Elbert is the highest peak in Colorado. (Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Writing on Facebook about the whole incident, Lake County Search and Rescue said: "Multiple attempts to contact the subject via their cell phone were unsuccessful."

"One notable take-away is that the subject ignored repeated phone calls from us because they didn’t recognize the number. If you’re overdue according to your itinerary, and you start getting repeated calls from an unknown number, please answer the phone; it may be a SAR team trying to confirm you’re safe!”

Amazing. Imagine being lost in the dead of night and seeing your phone light up with a call and you are like ‘naaaa, I don’t know that number, probably a telemarketer’.

Social media users certainly found the funny side in the whole thing, which resulted in the Lake County Search and Rescue Facebook page stepping in to defend the individual, stating that in an emergency, common sense isn’t always that common.

They wrote: “Please remember that what seems like common sense in hindsight is not obvious to a subject in the moment when they are lost and panicking.

The hiker's identity has never actually been revealed, lucky for them.(Getty Stock Image)

“In Colorado, most folks who spend time outdoors have a good understanding of the SAR infrastructure that is there to help them, but this is not the case nation-wide. Please keep your comments respectful.”

Well, I think we have all learnt a valuable lesson here. If you go off the trail and spend the night in the mountains, might be worth picking up the phone, to at least say you are fine and dandy.