A 52-year-old Utah man was flown to a Colorado hospital Saturday after falling and getting stuck on a cliff near Jones Hole National Fish Hatchery in Uintah County. The red circle shows the place where the man was saved. Courtesy photo: Uintah County Sheriff’s Office
UINTAH COUNTY, Utah, May 24, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) – A 52-year-old Utah man was flown to a Colorado hospital on Saturday after being stuck on a cliff near the Jones Hole National Fish Hatchery in Uintah County .
The five-hour rescue operation began when a group camped near the hatchery heard someone call for help, according to a press release from the Uintah County Sheriff’s Office. One of the people in the group is a member of the Wasatch County Sheriff’s search and rescue team. The group tried to locate the person who was calling for help, but the echoes from the cliffs made it impossible to pinpoint the person’s location.
“The group called headquarters around 1:40 p.m. to report what they had heard,” the press release said. “The Uintah County Sheriff’s search and rescue team has been mobilized and assistance has been sought from the helicopter crews of the Utah Department of Public Safety and Classic Air Medical.”
The Classic Air Medical crew arrived first and were able to spot the injured man on the cliff, but couldn’t reach him due to the steep terrain, the press release said. A camera-equipped drone launched by the Uintah County Search and Rescue operation also located the man’s location on the cliff.
That information was passed on to the DPS helicopter crew and they were able to reach the man and lift him off the cliff, the press release said.
The man told rescuers he remembered starting the climb over a slot in the cliff on Saturday morning and doing about three-quarters of the climb before falling an unknown distance. He said he hit his head in the fall and passed out. He wasn’t sure how long he was stuck on the cliff before he regained consciousness and started calling for help.
“The area he climbed is remote,” said Sgt. Dustin Cheshire said. “You wouldn’t really expect anyone to climb there. If it wasn’t for the camping group with a Search and Rescue member from Wasatch County who heard this guy screaming and screaming, it would be unlikely anyone would have found him. “
In addition to a suspected head injury, the man also sustained injuries to his lower extremities that prevented him from using his legs, Cheshire said.
The man was flown to St. Mary’s Medical Center in Grand Junction, Colorado. Cheshire said the two helicopter crews were instrumental in locating the man and reducing the duration of the rescue operation.
“Without the helicopters, we might still be working with ropes to get him off the cliff,” Cheshire said.
Comments are closed.