DENVER (May 13, 2009)--Rangers have rescued a 57-year-old man who fell while mountaineering in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park and spent 24 hours lying at the base of a glacier before being found.

Park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson says the Loveland man took a "tumbling fall" down Ptarmigan Glacier at 11 a.m. Monday.

Two backcountry skiers spotted him late Tuesday morning and used a cell phone to call authorities.

Patterson says the man was conscious but had suffered "numerous injuries."

Patterson says the conditions and terrain prevented a helicopter rescue, so park rangers used a wheeled litter to transport the man to a trailhead five miles away.

They started moving him at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and arrived at the trailhead four hours later.

The man is being taken by ambulance to a hospital.