Easter Sunday morning a member of TRJC was instrumental in helping retrieve a fallen climber from a 250 foot deep canyon in Moab, Utah. A 28 year old climber from Salem, Oregon, had been free-climbing, alone, the day before, and had fallen the last 40 feet into the canyon. He was severely injured, unable to move, and was finally able to yell for help Sunday morning.

A mountain biker heard the call for help from the bottom of Abyss Canyon and flagged down a couple people who used their GPS and a cell phone to call in the accident. At the same time, Dave Christensen (Red Rock 4-Wheelers and Two Rivers Jeep Club), Bob Micklick (Red Rock 4-Wheelers), Garry Shadwick (Two Rivers) and Craig Mullauer (Sundowners 4x4) were starting the Hell's Revenge 4WD trail and came upon the scene. The group of 4-wheelers remained at the scene to help render assistance.

A Utah State Police helicopter soon arrived with members of the Grand County Search and Rescue (GCSAR) team to assess the situation. The helicopter was able to drop several EMTs in the canyon about ½ mile from the injured climber. They hiked up the canyon to render aid while another group of personnel were flown in and gathered on top of the canyon. After an assessment, it was decided that due to the severity of the injuries, the climber could not be carried out. He was also unable to be lifted out by the helicopter because of his location within the canyon. Since the 4-wheelers were on site and had offered assistance, GCSAR decided to use one Jeep as an anchor to allow additional rescue personnel to rappel down to the injured person and then use the other Jeep's winch to raise the injured person up the 250 foot cliff.

Bob positioned his Jeep so the team could use it as an anchor to rappel down the canyon with a litter basket and medical supplies. Dave positioned his Jeep well behind Bob's (for safety, in case it started to slide) and prepared to use his winch to raise the injured person and an attendant EMT up the canyon.

After two hours of medical attention and careful preparation by GCSAR, Dave raised the climber in the litter basket along with the attendant EMT 250 feet out of the canyon. That process took close to 20 minutes as there were frequent stops so the EMT could move the basket around rock ledges on the way up and also to respool the 100' winch line several times.

A crowd had formed on the other side of the narrow canyon and when the climber was safely up, the approximately 15 rescue personnel, police officers and the 30-50 people on the other side applauded and cheered wildly. The climber was flown to Allen Hospital in Moab and then airlifted to St. Mary's in Grand Junction, where specialists were waiting. The climber suffered lacerations, several broken bones and a broken spine. He has since been transferred to a hospital in Oregon and is recovering.

Given the difficult place where the climber had fallen and the assistance received from Dave and Bob, Bego Gerhart, GCSAR Rock Captain, stated this was one of their better rescues. He was impressed with the level of professionalism and the awareness of the many safety issues surrounding the use of the vehicles that were demonstrated by both 4-wheelers. The next day, this rescue was one of the top news stories on the Salt Lake City TV stations.

Photos and a video of the rescue were taken by Craig and Garry. The 4-wheelers were invited to the next GCSAR de-briefing meeting later that week. Dave attended and presented GCSAR with a copy of the video that they watched, in its entirety, that night. While viewing the tape, GCSAR identified several changes to their recovery strategies. Craig ’ s one hour video of the rescue was such high quality that GCSAR plans to use it as a training video.

Had this area been a designated wilderness area, or even a Wilderness Study Area, there would have been no mountain biker to hear the climber ’ s cries for help nor any 4-wheelers to assist rescue personnel in lifting him from the canyon. Had this area been closed to any type of mechanical recreation, the lone climber would have likely perished. He was very lucky to have been heard and rescued.

This is yet another reason why we all need to work hard to keep our public lands open to motorized recreation. And whether you are from Illinois, out east, out west or wherever, we all need to write letters and keep the pressure on to avoid having the Green Advocacy Groups (GAGs) from locking us out of lands that belong to all of us, not just a few.

To show how vital it is to have a quick and effective rescue, only one week later an experienced climber had an accident, about 50 miles west of this incident, where his arm was pinned underneath an 800 pound boulder than had fallen. In order for him to survive, after four days, he amputated part of his arm and walked several miles before being rescued. Had he not been exceptionally skilled in survival techniques and had a tremendous will to live, the outcome would have been quite different.

A lesson to be learned from both of these incidents is that when going out for a day of recreation in a remote area, always try to travel with someone else. If that ’ s not feasible, leave some type of information as to your planned route and estimated return time. That way if you are long overdue, rescue personnel can start a search early on and, hopefully, in the general vicinity of where you were planning to be.