Re: Grand Canyon: Man Rescued After 60-Foot Fall Into Canyon

Grand Canyon National Park (AZ)
Man Rescued After 60-Foot Fall Into Canyon

A 47-year-old Ohio man was rescued after falling 60 feet while hiking in the Grand Canyon on Tuesday. The man fell shortly after starting a multi-day hike that would have taken him to Cottonwood Creek, a backcountry camping area below the South Rim. The accident occurred on the Grandview Trail just east of South Rim Village. The man and his hiking companions were several hundred feet down the trail when he stopped to peer over the edge and lost his balance. A visitor at the Grandview trailhead heard calls for help and called park dispatch. Rangers responded and found the man lying injured on the trail. Because of the steep terrain and difficult switchbacks – and for the safety of the patient – rangers called for the park helicopter and extricated the man using a short-haul operation. Once at the parking lot the man was stabilized and transported by ambulance to the South Rim helibase. From there he was flown by Classic Life Guard to the Flagstaff Medical Center to be treated for life-threatening injuries. Approximately 20 people from the National Park Service were involved in the rescue. Personnel from the park’s emergency services, interpretation, wildland fire and aviation and law enforcement divisions responded along with park volunteers.

I have seen people get vertigo on that trail. Sometimes they slip on the schist(sp) and other loose rocks, but a lot of times its disorientation.

B

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Bee
I have seen people get vertigo on that trail.

A friend in college got sick on the trail. Of course he was the one that wanted to keep going on the way down.

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Sometimes they slip on the schist(sp) and other loose rocks, but a lot of times its disorientation.

Schist is a gneiss way to spell it.

Grand Canyon National Park (AZ)
Body Of One Of Three Missing Men Found

On Friday afternoon, rangers recovered the body of 16-year-old Mark Merrill, who’d been missing since Thursday morning when he and two companions disappeared after jumping into the Colorado River. The body was found about a mile below Boat Beach, where the three were last seen. The search continues for 22-year-old Joey Merrill and 16-year-old Saif Savaya. A section of the river from Boat Beach to Hermit Rapid, a distance of about ten river miles, has been searched by boat, from the air and on foot, but no sign of them has yet been found. A search dog and its handler have also worked both banks of the river below Boat Beach, and rangers have prepared and distributed a missing person’s flyer to boaters and hikers along the river. The park is being supported by Arizona DPS, the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office, Xanterra South Rim LLC, Delaware North Park Services (Canyon Village Market Place), and visitors and volunteers who have provided assistance with the search effort and support to the families of these young men.

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eeek
Grand Canyon National Park (AZ)
Body Of One Of Three Missing Men Found

....body of 16-year-old Mark Merrill, ........ after jumping into the Colorado River. ......search continues for 22-year-old Joey Merrill and 16-year-old Saif Savaya......

Here is some more of the story:

from ,http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/2009/05/03/20090503canyon0504.html?&wired
Instead of using a bridge to cross the river, the youths found a trail around the bridge and decided to wade in the water before diving in.
Sproul said other hikers yelled at the young men, cautioning them to get out of the river, but Sproul wasn't sure if the youths heard the warnings.
"As soon as you get in the water, you're swept by the current," Sproul said.
Mark's body was discovered Friday, a mile south of where the trio was last seen.

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

Every year, this story plays itself out over and over, but usually it is a bit later in the season.

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Bee
Every year, this story plays itself out over and over, but usually it is a bit later in the season.

The usual formula involves high cold water from snow melt plus poor judgment plus equipment inadequacies (no life jackets) and then sprinkle in some additional factors like age and/or alcohol to get a deadly situation. In Alaska, drowning is one of the most common causes of traumatic death.

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

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Frank Furter
In Alaska, drowning is one of the most common causes of traumatic death.

How does it compare to moose collisions?

How does it compare to moose collisions?[/quote]

Moose collisions: Moose running into each other?

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Bee
How does it compare to moose collisions?

Moose collisions: Moose running into each other? [/quote]

Those sort of moose collisions (between two moose) rarely involve humans.

The point about Alaska is that most exposure to water is "natural bodies of water" that are very cold. Very few swimming pools to drown in (or learn to swim in). It is the leading cause of death (more dangerous than automobiles) in 10 states in children less than 14 yrs old. (California is one of those 10 states also!!)

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

Moose collisions are very common in the state of maine where I lived for 19 years. Many head-on collisions with vehicles are quite deadly. Moose stand so tall that vehicles take out their legs while the torso comes through the windshield. I'm not too sure who originally brought up the subject of moose but are they common in the west? I perhaps have a mistaken impression that they are an eastern and midwestern animal.


Getting back to this thread (sort of) it also reminds me of a dumb thing folks do on the coast of Maine. They go to places like Pemaquid Point and walk as far out on the rocks as they can to watch the heavy rollers come crashing in. They simply don't understand that about every 20th or 30th roller is a monster as you watch 15-20 people scrambling for their lives and getting pounded around on the ledges by the water, hoping nobody gets dragged out into 50 degree water. If they do there is absolutely nothing you can do but watch helplessly. Even if they miraculously survived the surf they could die of hypothermia before the Coast Guard helicopter could arrive or a lobster boat picked them up.

Jim