The hiker had been trekking for hours by the time he summited the mountain and realized the markers showing the way back down had disappeared.

He and 14 colleagues had set out on the hike on Colorado’s Mount Shavano – meant to be a work retreat – at sunrise Friday. But at some point, he had gotten separated.

Lost, disoriented and later stuck in a storm, the man was forced to spend the night alone on the mountain before being rescued, Chaffee County Search and Rescue South said in a statement Sunday.

The fact that “one member of their party was left to complete his final summit push alone,” the statement said, “might cause some awkward encounters at the office in the coming days and weeks.”

There was no indication in the statement that his colleagues left him deliberately.

The rescue team, which did not identify the stranded man or his company, said the colleagues had split into two groups – one “completing summit attempts” and the other “ascending to the saddle and returning from there.”

By about 11:30 a.m., the man had reached the top of the roughly 14,000-foot mountain in San Isabel National Forest. But he soon found that his co-workers had picked up the objects marking the descent as they hiked down, the rescue group said.

Worried, the man used his phone to send a pin-drop of his location to his colleagues. They responded that he was going the wrong way and told him to climb back uphill to find the trail, according to the rescue group. He sent another pin-drop to his team hours later and told them he was near the trail.

Soon after, freezing rain and high winds swept through the area. The man became disoriented again and lost cellphone service.

The rescue group learned about the missing hiker at about 9 p.m. local time and soon mobilized two teams and a drone operator to find him. But the wind and rain made the search challenging, the rescue group said. Even with a helicopter, first responders couldn’t find the man.

Finally, the lost hiker regained enough cell service to call 911. With specific information about his location, rescuers found him in a gully and rescued him with technical rope lowers. They then transported him to a hospital for medical care.

The man told first responders that he had fallen on the steep slopes at least 20 times while disoriented. After the last fall, he said, he couldn’t get back up.

In its statement, the Colorado rescue team underscored the importance of hiking with a partner, wearing bright clothes and packing essentials, such as flashlights, food and water.

“This hiker was phenomenally lucky,” the rescue team said.