Yosemite National Park (CA)
Two Rescued From Talus Slope Near Sentinel Rock
On the evening of June 14th, park dispatch received a call from John G. Badgley reporting that his 19-year-old son, John T. Badgley (who goes by Tanur), had suffered injuries in a fall on Sentinel Rock in Yosemite Valley. The family was visiting the park from Kansas at the time. Badgley also reported that a second son, age 16, was stranded on the same talus slope. Although uninjured, he too was unable to descend on his own. Rangers later determined that all three Badgleys were scrambling on a talus slope below Sentinel Fall when Tauner slipped and fell on loose rock. He was unable to regain his footing and fell 50 feet down the slope, sustaining injures to his back and neck and a possible pelvic fracture. Tauner attempted to descend the slope after his fall, but realized he was too injured to move. At the same time, his brother became stuck on a cliff edge just above the talus slope and was unable to descend. Ranger Jarred Mitrea was dispatched and arrived on the scene around 8:30 p.m. He began providing basic medical treatment to Tauner and was soon joined by ranger Jack Hoeflich and a Yosemite SAR team member. Rescue crews were able to rappel to the 16-year-old and remove him from the cliff face shortly after nightfall. Mitrea and Hoeflich decided that it would be unsafe for Tauner and rescue crews to descend the slope with him, though, and it was too dark to fly him out by helicopter. The rangers stayed the night on the talus slope with Tauner. Around 6 a.m., he was extricated by helicopter short haul and flown to Memorial Medical Center in Modesto, California. The IC for this incident was ranger Ed Visnovske.