Officials rescue man whose leg was pinned under 1-ton boulder

The man had been hiking on a trail with two other people at Eldorado State Park when they went off the trail, according to a news release from the Boulder County Sheriff's Office.

"They went off trail into a scree field. And while they were walking around that, he was walking around a larger rock, and when he put his hand on it, the rock shifted, pinning his foot and leg," Richard Peebles of the Sheriff's Office told KDVR.

Drew Hildner of the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group said steep slopes and an unsteady boulder field made the four-hour rescue effort tough, the television station reported.

"It's almost like solving a complex math problem," Hildner told KDVR. "You have to make sure if you're moving one thing, you're not going to shift everything else as well."

Hildner said his crew used air bags, pulleys and lifts to free the man. “We were able to roll the boulder just enough to free the patient's foot and leg,” Hildner told the television station. “It requires thinking outside the box, using multiple different solutions."

The victim, whose identity has not been released, was taken to a hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, KUSA reported.