Death Valley National Park (CA)
Injured Woman Rescued From Park Canyon

On the evening of Saturday, April 14th, dispatch advised rangers that a woman had broken her ankle in an unnamed canyon near Artist's Pallette along the Badwater Road. Rangers immediately launched a hasty response and found the woman several hundred yards up from the parking lot at Artist's Pallette. She had climbed up a side canyon, scaling several dry waterfalls, and was returning when she jumped from a ledge, injuring her ankle. She was conscious and oriented but unable to move due to severe pain. Local search and rescue helicopters were contacted due to the treacherous terrain, waning light, and dropping temperatures. No air assets were able to respond, however, due to high winds and deteriorating weather, so a rescue team consisting of six rangers, two volunteers and other park staff was assembled despite lower than normal staffing levels. Just before 10 p.m., the rescue team began a technical evacuation, lowering the woman and litter over two dry falls and carrying her out to the road. The team reached the road at 11:30 p.m. and she was transferred to an NPS ambulance and taken to Las Vegas via a rendezvous with a Las Vegas-based ambulance company in Lathrop Wells. The incident concluded on Sunday at 3 a.m. Ranger Amber Nattrass was the IC.

Death Valley to Las Vegas in an ambulance. Imagine the bill! I rode 10 mins in one once and it was $1,000.