An insurance executive who was rescued from a mountain in central Colorado after reportedly being abandoned by his coworkers was hiking to raise money for World Central Kitchen, his company said.

The hiker, 46-year-old Steve Stephanides, was rescued Saturday after being stranded overnight on the 14,000-foot Mt. Shavano during a freezing rain storm, officials said.

Contacted by ABC News on Wednesday, Stephanides said his company, global insurance firm Beazley, was still gathering facts about the expedition. He referred all questions to his company’s spokesman.

Adrian Cox, CEO of Beazley and a London resident, released a statement to ABC News on Thursday morning praising Chaffee County Search and Rescue – South, an all-volunteer search and rescue team in Colorado, for saving his employee’s life.

“We are very grateful to Chaffee County Search and Rescue South for coming to the aid of one of our employees after he got into difficulty during a charity walk. The quick response and brave actions of Chaffee County SAR, despite the adverse weather conditions, ensured that our colleague was rescued and returned safely,” said Cox.

A Beazley spokesperson confirmed to ABC News that company employees were on Mt. Shavano as part of an annual charity hike to raise money for World Central Kitchen, the nonprofit humanitarian organization founded in 2010 by celebrity chef José Andrés to deliver meals to disaster zones around the world, including war zones in Ukraine and Gaza.

“This charity walk has been running for over a decade and many people have taken part multiple times,” Cox said. “We are proud of their dedication to their fundraising efforts and will continue to work with those involved to ensure they make a full recovery from this incident and receive the support they need.”

Cox did not provide further details about how the near-tragedy occurred during the office’s annual charity fundraiser.

“In what may lead to some awkward encounters in the office in the days and weeks ahead, one member of their group had to complete his final attempt to reach the summit alone,” Chaffee County Search and Rescue — South said in a statement.

Previous online posts and photos from Beazely colleagues indicate that this is at least the second year in a row that Stephanides has participated in the charity walk.

The failed office outing took place Friday on Mt. Shavano in the San Isabel National Forest in central Colorado, said Danny Andres, president of the volunteer rescue group.

“Our subject was approaching the top and took a break, and a number of people in his group started to go down,” Danny Andres told ABC’s “Good Morning America” ​​on Thursday. “He decided to continue to the top.”

While 14 workers made it down the mountain safely, rescuers said one was left to complete the summit alone. Andres said the worker reached the top at 11:30 a.m., but when he tried to descend, he became “disoriented as to where the trail was.”

The hiker used his cell phone to report his location to his colleagues, who told him he was on the wrong trail and instructed him to hike back to the summit to return on the correct path, rescuers said in a statement.

“On his initial attempts to descend, he encountered a steep field of boulders and debris on the northeast slopes toward Shavano Lake,” officials said.

Just before 4 p.m. local time on Friday, Stephanides sent another location pindrop to his colleagues that he was near the correct path. Shortly after that message, a severe storm moved through the area, bringing freezing rain and high winds, rescue officials said in a statement.

“If you are in that cold, with that sleet and wind, it is taxing on you,” says Andrés.

At least seven different rescue teams from across Colorado were involved in the search for Stephanides.

Stephanides also lost his cell phone reception while descending the mountain. After his rescue, he told rescuers that he had fallen at least 20 times on the steep slopes and that the last time he could not get back up.

Making matters worse, Stephanides’ colleagues inexplicably collected items from a rock field to mark the path down, officials said.

When his colleagues did not hear from him, they reported Stephanides missing at 9 p.m., about eight and a half hours after he began his descent, officials said.

Rescue crews found Stephanides in a gully near a drainage creek and carried him down the mountain on a stretcher, officials said. He was taken to a hospital in stable condition, officials said.

Rescue workers said Stephanides was “extremely lucky” that the weather cleared on Saturday and he had good enough cell phone reception to call 911.

“All the teams that were involved are volunteer rescuers,” Andres said. “It’s exhausting, but it’s worth it when we go out and find people and reunite them with their loved ones. It’s amazing.”

ABC News’ Laryssa Demkiw and Emme Marchese contributed to this report.