Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue and Unified Fire worked more than three hours to rescue a climber who fell 70 feet in Big Cottonwood Canyon Friday night.
Crews were dispatched just after 10:00 p.m. to Narcolepsy Wall where two climbers were on a route known as “Dream Slate” in the dark with headlamps.
The victim was cleaning the top anchors when his partner saw him free fall from the top of the route and land in a large bush, which officials say potentially broke his fall, though he did sustain severe injuries.
Unified Fire were able to get to the patient and provide care while Search and Rescue members packaged and prepared to raise the patient about 40 feet uphill before lowing him down the trail to the road.
Due to the steep, rocky terrain, it took 25 Search and Rescue members to extract the patient, along with several Unified firefighters and paramedics. It took crews roughly 3 hours and 15 minutes to complete the rescue, and all crews were off the mountain by 1:30 a.m.
