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Seven-Hour Rescue Saves Climber After 40–50-Foot Fall at Red Rock Canyon

Officials say a destroyed helmet likely saved his life.

Overview

  • Las Vegas police were notified around noon Saturday of a climber who fell 40 to 50 feet on the Dream Safari route on Dark Shadows Wall in Pine Creek Canyon.
  • The climber suffered severe head and back injuries and was found roughly 600 feet above the ground near the top of the first pitch after starting up the second.
  • Four Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Search and Rescue officers and a Lead Climb volunteer were inserted by the AIR3 helicopter above the site, then rappelled hundreds of feet to reach the patient.
  • Rescuers administered care, secured the climber in a titanium litter, and lowered him hundreds of feet through three stations while a rescuer attended the descent.
  • Volunteers carried the litter to an extraction point for transport to a BLM helipad, where he was transferred to an ambulance and taken to a local hospital, and the cause of the fall remains unclear.