Colorado man disappears while 'speed flying' in the Swiss Alps

A Colorado family is desperately hoping Tuesday that infrared technology from search and rescue helicopters will track down their son who disappeared over the weekend in the Swiss Alps while speed flying.

Harrison Fast, a 28-year-old from Boulder, vanished Saturday when bad weather rolled in while he and a group of friends were participating in the hybrid sport, a combination of skiing and paragliding, Fox 31 reports.

A sudden gust of wind threw the group off, authorities said, but five people managed to ski, hike out or be rescued by helicopters so far.

A post on a Facebook page set up in the search for Fast said “we are gathering Intel to narrow down the search area and use our time most effectively."

The page said Tuesday that two Swiss rescue services are sending out helicopters to search for Fast. Swiss authorities called off their search Monday, but the family raised more than $44,000 on a crowdfunding site by midday Tuesday – well ahead of their $15,000 goal – to keep the search going through private helicopter operators.

“I don’t really go to that place where bad things live, if you will. I keep joking with the family that he’s in some mountain-side bar, talking to a girl with a dead cell phone, not knowing what we are all going through,” his brother-in-law, John Solis, told Fox 31.

Solis described Fast, who is an engineer, as a skilled outdoorsman who thrives on “pushing the limits and seeing where he can go next.”

“We want the best for him,” Solis said.

Click for more from Fox 31.