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SILVER CITY - Robert Fritz and his son Austin, 15, were found alive and well on Tuesday morning after being missing in the Gila Wilderness for nine days. The pair survived a blizzard that dropped nearly two feet of snow on the area and frigid temperatures that dipped to 15 below zero Saturday night.
Fritz said he and his son started out for a five-day backpacking trip the day after Christmas and were doing fine until the snow started Wednesday night.
"We were making five and a half to six miles a day," he said.
But by Thursday morning, with more than two feet of snow on the ground, their progress became more difficult.
"Thursday morning we had to knock snow off the tent so it wouldn't collapse," he said. "That morning we got up and got a late start and started trying to post hole through the snow."
After slogging through the snow for just a couple of miles, Fritz said they stopped and set up camp for the night.
"On Friday we got up earlier and started again, but after an hour it became obvious it wasn't going to be possible to hike out."
The pair was still about 10 miles in, Fritz said, and that's when Austin started feeling ill.
"He was having trouble holding anything down, so we fixed a campsite and hunkered down," he said. "By Sunday he had stopped (getting sick) but by then he hadn't eaten anything since Friday, so he couldn't hike out. So that's when we started hoping for rescue, because I couldn't think of anyway to go and get help without leaving
The two had stayed in the same place since Friday night and weren't lost, he said.
"I've been out here a lot of times," he said. "I know the trails real well and I'm in real good health. If my son had been able to hold anything down we would have continued."
Fritz said he was worried that rescuers might not find them but said if worse came to worst he would have hiked out and gone for help for his son.
"I've been doing this for 28 years and I've never had a situation like this happen before. I was able to take care of my son, and that was my priority," he said.
Around 10 a.m. Tuesday morning Fritz said he was able to flag down a helicopter that had been searching for them.
"The first time they didn't see me but the second time they did," he said.
The pair were not out of food and had enough fuel in their camp stove to continue to make snow into water, so they were not suffering from the effects of dehydration. Fritz said he thought his son getting sick was related to the cold weather.
But by Tuesday afternoon, the pair got a clear bill of health from the EMTs and were getting read to head back to their car and drive back to El Paso, he said.
Fritz said in the past, he used to leave an itinerary with an agency before he went on overnight hikes into the wilderness but said that at some point, agencies got to where they asked people not to do that.
John Kramer, a Trails and Recreation specialist with the Gila National Forest, said the best option for hikers planning trips into the wilderness is for them to leave a copy of their itinerary with a friend or family member, and a second copy in their vehicle, and to tell a friend or family member that they will call them when they get out. Kramer also said that anyone planning to hike in the forest should check with the agency that manages that land to find out about weather predictions, trail conditions and other issues they might encounter during their trip.
Twenty-five to thirty searchers began searching for the pair on Sunday, two days after they were overdue to return from their trip.
Fritz and his son slogged through snow drifts 18 to 24 inches high and endured nighttime temperatures from Dec. 30 to Jan. 4 of four to 15 degrees below zero.
Before they left, Fritz said he checked weather reports for Silver City and Truth or Consequences.
Rangers at the Gila Cliff Dwellings said that they were expecting three to nine inches of snow.
When rescuers got to them, Austin Fritz's body temperature was down to 94 degrees but jumped to 97 degrees pretty quickly after he was warmed up in a sleeping bag and sitting by a space heater. One of his feet was pretty swollen, Robert Fritz said, and was having trouble warming up, but overall the father and son were in good condition and after being checked out by EMTs, left on their own for their home in El Paso.
Christine Steele can be reached at (575) 538-5893 ext. 5802.
