DENVER (KDVR) — More people are finding themselves in dangerous situations in Colorado’s backcountry, pushing the Alpine Rescue Team to its busiest January in history.

“We’ve had 17 missions already this month which we’ve never had in the history of our team for January. We’ve had four missions in one day — we’ve never had that before in January,” said Dawn Wilson, Public Information Officer for the team.

Wilson says the number of missions is closer to what they typically experience in the spring. Many of the calls involve inexperienced hikers or people who were not properly prepared for the conditions.

“It’s hard to tell who’s a novice and who’s not a novice. Avalanches lately have taken down very experienced backcountry recreationists. But novices tend to get into more trouble,” said Wilson.

Wilson says it’s easy for an experienced individual to become comfortable and forget essentials like a flashlight, extra clothes, food and water. She also recommends bringing a compass, map or GPS other than a cell phone.

“We’ve had people who were ill-prepared, they didn’t have enough warmth or they didn’t have a light. The sun goes down and they’re okay except for the fact that they can’t see. Their cell phone runs out of battery or gets too cold and doesn’t work,” said Wilson.

She says COVID-19 has pushed more people to explore the outdoors, but she also believes social media has a lot to do with the increase in calls.

“People don’t turn around because they want to get to that peak to take that picture,” said Wilson.

Wilson encourages people to call 911 as soon as they feel they might be in trouble. It can take hours for help to arrive in the back country.