ALAMOSA — The challenge of climbing the peaks of the Blanca Massif draws hikers and climbers to the San Luis Valley every year. Most make it without incident. But some do not, and they end up being rescued or, tragically, recovered after a loose rock or a fatal misstep claims their lives.
But another story goes on behind the scenes that is rarely told or even acknowledged. That is the story of the dedicated members from Alamosa Volunteer Search and Rescue (AVSAR) who answer the call at all hours of the day or night, leaving their families and their jobs to, quite literally, put their lives at risk in bringing a missing person down the mountain.
Recently, Crystal Wilson with AVSAR agreed to share some of that story with the Valley Courier. Wilson has been the leader and an active part of the team since 2017, serving for more than five of those six years as president of the organization. She stepped down from that position on Oct. 25.
Born in Colorado Springs, Wilson has lived all over the country, including in Chicago where she worked as a hair stylist. About 10 years ago, she and her partner, Stephen Cline, took a “backpacking and big antelope hunting trip” in Wyoming that prompted them to realize they wanted to live in the mountains again. They did just that, settling in the Jacob’s Hill area.
Wilson’s background in outdoor activities included hunting and hiking as a kid, but Cline had been researching search and rescue before moving to Colorado.
“I felt the need to help people,” she says. “And it was a way to grow my skills in the outdoors. So, we jumped in headfirst. The first thing we did when we moved to Colorado was to join AVSAR.”
Wilson has been on at least 50 missions since joining AVSAR, supporting more recoveries than rescues, due, she says, “to the dangerous nature of the Blanca Massif.”
“Some of the missions have ended well,” she says. “Earlier this year, a hiker was on the traverse between Little Bear and Blanca, which is very, very exposed, and dangerous. He ended up bailing off the traverse into the Blanca Basin — which is remote and rugged — and ended up in a medical emergency.
“He was grossly underprepared. Severely dehydrated, weak, couldn’t walk, was out of food and water, and didn’t have enough layers to sustain himself overnight. We got him to our helipad, and he was flown to the hospital from there. A few hours later, he would have been in kidney failure.”
But other missions have different endings and, when asked, one name comes to mind. Joy Cipoletti and the search that took place in 2020. Wilson calls it a “career-altering mission.” Wilson was the incident commander on the search.
“Joy was last heard from when she summited Ellingwood Point,” she begins. “She’d called her daughter. There were a couple of texts back and forth. Then she went missing and was never heard from again.
“We had multiple aircraft and over 10 different teams from around the state. On day five, we ended up finding her deceased.
“That was the largest mission I’d ever been a part of, and it solidified my role in beefing up our incident command skills. After that, I started to enact an incident command program with the team.
“The hardest but the best thing about that mission is that the family was there the whole time. Typically, we have a pretty strict rule of no families but Chris, Joy’s brother, was wonderful. He respected all of our boundaries and kept all of us fed all of the time. To this day, I still chat with them three or four times a year because they’re like family. There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t think of Joy and her family.”
A call came over the radio that they needed additional gear and someone to help run the rigging, which was going to be intense because of where her body was located. Wilson was the only one left who had any knowledge of the rescue rigging, so she was flown by helicopter to help package Joy’s body up and run the rigging to get her down to just above South Zapata Lake where she was then put into the helicopter and flown out from there.
“When a search ends that way, it’s tragic for us, as well. There are things you can’t unsee,” she says, her voice trembling a bit.
After that mission, Wilson formed a mental health committee. A team member with Adans State University who had a background in mental health support for law enforcement and first responders put together a program that AVSAR now offers to anyone who assists them on a mission, positioning AVSAR on the forefront of southern counties in creating mental health support for team members.
“Sheriff Jackson and Undersheriff Woods have been a huge part of that,” she says.
Another one of Wilson’s passion projects is being able to connect with these families. That passion was born in her first mission — the recovery of Barney Cruz.
“I would say a really hard but very big part of healing is getting to meet the families of the person we just recovered because then you can hear stories about the person they were,” she says. “You always find connections with the person that way. Then you can say to the others, this is the kind of person Barney was, and it sounds like he would have fit in perfectly with our team. So, it’s not just a task, it’s a real person, a real life that you’re being a part of.”
Wilson admits that it was been a big decision to step down as president, but it is also an enormous job that she is ready to hand off to someone else. She wants to spend time with her family. She looks forward to getting her life back.
When asked if getting her life back includes staying part of AVSAR, she does not hesitate.
“Of course,” she says. “AVSAR is a part of who I am. I think it always will be.”
