A weekend climb outside Las Vegas turned into a seven-hour rescue epic after a man plummeted an estimated 40 to 50 feet off a canyon wall, police say. The climber was ascending "Dream Safari," a multi-pitch route on Dark Shadows Wall in Pine Creek Canyon, when he fell from the second pitch around midday Saturday, suffering serious head and back injuries, per the Independent. His partner and a nearby guide reached him first and worked to slow the bleeding while calling for help.
Because the man was stranded roughly 600 feet up the wall, rescuers couldn't reach him from the ground. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Search and Rescue and a Lead Climb volunteer were flown in by helicopter, then rappelled hundreds of feet down to his position. After stabilizing him and strapping him into a titanium litter, the team lowered him hundreds of feet to the canyon floor, then carried him across rough desert terrain to a waiting transport.
Police say they don't yet know what triggered the fall or what he struck on the way down, but credit his destroyed helmet with likely saving his life. The department shared a photo of the helmet in pieces, splattered with blood. Police say the victim is recovering and "in good spirits." A person claiming to be the victim commented on the department's Instagram post about the incident, saying his gear "unclipped" during the fall so that he plummeted "a life-threatening distance" rather than 12 to 15 feet as expected, per KLAS. He added that the rescue team "very well could've saved" his life.
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