A 27-year-old snowboarder who spent Thursday night outside in frigid temperatures after leaving the Ski Santa Fe area was rescued Friday morning without injuries, police said.

Jason Pinney, a part-time Albuquerque resident from El Paso, was last seen by a group of his friends from Albuquerque between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. Thursday, said state police Lt. Eric Garcia. When he didn't show up between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m., his friends notified ski patrol, who searched the ski area and didn't find him, he said.

State police search and rescue teams were notified about 6 p.m., when three teams began looking for Pinney, Garcia said. The search eventually grew to five teams on snowshoes, two on snowmobiles and four K-9 teams, he said.

Just after 9 a.m. Friday, weather cleared and the new helicopter state police received only last week — the last one crashed in June during a mountain rescue — located Pinney between 1 3/4 and 2 miles northeast of the ski area at 10,600 feet, Garcia said.

A National Guard Blackhawk helicopter retrieved Pinney not long after he was spotted and was initially going to fly him to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, he said. However, the helicopter was too large to land at the hospital, Garcia said. The crew was then going to fly Pinney to University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque but he said he didn't need medical attention, Garcia said.

The helicopter then dropped Pinney off at the Santa Fe Municipal Airport, where his friends picked him up.

Garcia said Pinney wanted to check out new territory, left the ski area boundaries and became lost. He didn't know how Pinney was able to keep warm in temperatures that dipped to between 15 and 20 degrees below zero.

Contact Jason Auslander at 986-3076 or :jauslander@sfnewmexican.com.