Hiker, 33, Spent Hours Stuck in Knee-Deep Quicksand Before Being Located by Drone and Rescued

A backpacker in Utah who became trapped in near-freezing quicksand for several hours was pulled to safety after rescuers used a drone to pinpoint his location.

The ordeal began on the morning of Sunday, Dec. 7, when 33-year-old Austin Dirks was on the second day of a 20-mile backpacking trip in Arches National Park. While traveling near Courthouse Wash, he told Backpacker that what looked like ordinary mud suddenly turned into quicksand and locked his leg in place.

“I’m no stranger to getting my feet wet or having to trudge through mud,” said Dirks, an experienced hiker from Glenwood Springs, Colo. “At first, it didn’t seem unusual… I’ve hiked in conditions almost identical to that. There were no immediate red flags.”

As his leg twisted into a painful position and the cold set in, Dirks realized he might not be able to free himself and decided to call for help, according to the magazine. A park ranger was the first to reach him, but even with a shovel, they couldn’t dig him out.

Soon after, members of Grand County Search and Rescue arrived, Backpacker, NBC affiliate KSL and NBC News reported. Using a drone, the team was able to locate Dirks precisely and found him stuck knee-deep in the quicksand.

Incident commander John Marshall told KSL that Dirks described the sensation as similar to being locked into a ski boot, with his ankle forced forward. “He found it painful to try to sit back and lean back out of it, which is a method that you can use to extract yourself,” Marshall said.

Footage from Grand County Search and Rescue shows how technical the operation was. Rescuers used a ladder and vehicle traction boards to safely reach Dirks and dig him out, NBC News reported. The temperature was around 21 degrees, and the canyon’s shade made it feel even colder.

“One of the first things that we said was just, ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ ” rescue technician Jake Blackwelder told the outlet. “He was pretty tired and stuck and ready to get out.”

In a Reddit post describing the rescue, Dirks wrote that once he was finally freed, his leg was so numb he almost collapsed.

“When they finally pulled me free, my shoe almost tore off but held on,” he wrote. “My leg had no feeling left in it and nearly collapsed when I put weight on it. I carefully crossed the ladder to solid ground.”

Rescuers gave him warming packs and a heated blanket, which gradually brought sensation back to his leg. Dirks was then able to hike out of the canyon with assistance, and a team member drove him back to his car so he could head home “sore but intact,” he wrote.

“The National Park Service, Grand County Search and Rescue, EMS and the Garmin dispatchers did everything right,” Dirks added in his post. “Without them, I would have been stuck there until nightfall. My family wouldn’t have called it in until I was overdue at 6 p.m. I would not have been found by chance. I owe them more than thanks.”

Grand County Search and Rescue, based in Moab, Utah, said this was one of many missions for its team. “This mission was the 142nd mission of the year for GCSAR, and we did another mission later that day for a mountain biker,” the organization said in a statement.

Marshall also cautioned hikers about how deceptive and dangerous quicksand can be.

“It’s got a good bite. The more people struggle, the deeper they go,” he told NBC News. “One or two footsteps into that sand is really all it needs to initiate that initial stuck factor.”