Photos by Eric Mullens Despite its benign appearance Friday evening the Blanca Massif proved deadly once again this week for a Texas man who fell to his death while hiking alone in the mountains.

Texas man

dies after fall



ALAMOSA — GPS technology was able to aid rescuers to the location of a missing hiker in the Sangre de Cristo mountains early Thursday morning, but a distress single from the man’s positioning transmitter was not received in time by local authorities to save his life.

The Alamosa County Volunteer Search and Rescue Team was notified by a telephone call that originated from the wife of David Boyd, 47, of Houston, Texas after 9:30 p.m. Thursday and members began to assemble at the sheriff’s office in Alamosa.

Alamosa Sheriff Dave Stong said Friday the first team comprised of six members of the rescue team drove into the Lake Como area Thursday night and began their ascent onto Blanca Massif and then traversing southeasterly to the ridge line that separates Tobin and Holbrook creeks.

Boyd’s family members told authorities he had planned to hike Mount Blanca, Twin Peaks and Lindsey Peak.

A second search and rescue team began climbing the mountain at first light Friday morning. By 8 a.m. however the first element of rescuers discovered Boyd’s body.

The body was recovered from the mountain Friday and turned over to the Alamosa County Coroner’s Office where an autopsy will determine the exact manner of death.

Rescue personnel on the scene said it appeared Boyd fell 150-to-200 feet and succumbed to his injuries in the hours that passed after he activated his GPS units emergency option.

The information from the GPS unit was forwarded to Boyd’s family members in Texas and it was unclear whether or not the information was sent directly to their phones or computer e-mails or to an outside monitoring agency that in turn notified them. Nonetheless the electronic SOS helped guide rescue personnel to Boyd.

A review of the time line and actual positioning from Boyd’s GPS device indicates the victim may have moved only a few feet from when the signal was originally sent at 9:18 P.M. (CDT) Sept. 3, until the last transmission at 12:48 p.m. (CDT) Thur., Sept. 4.

Stong said a total of eight signals were sent from the GPS unit in the nearly 16-hours between the first and last transmission according to the item's history.

The man’s body was recovered in an area along the one of the ridge lines above the Hourglass where the body of Lygon Stevens was recovered earlier this summer after she was lost in an avalanche in January.