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Grand County Search and Rescue team members float the Colorado River during a Saturday mission to rescue a young woman who had fallen in a ravine.
Courtesy of Grand County Search and Rescue
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Grand County Search and Rescue team members launch boats on the Colorado River during a Saturday mission to rescue a young woman who had fallen in a ravine.
Courtesy of Grand County Search and Rescue
Two women were hurt in separate falling incidents Saturday in Grand County, including one that had volunteers with Grand County Search and Rescue rafting at night.
According to a news release, a search and rescue team was called into action around 10 a.m. Saturday when a 55-year-old woman slipped about 12 feet into Jim Creek near the waterfall and hit her head on a log.
The woman suffered a twisted ankle, elbow pain and a bump on her head. She had wrapped her ankle and started walking back down the trail where she met up with two rescue team members and paramedics driving up on ATVs. Other rescue team members had gotten a litter ready to go, but the woman was brought back to the trailhead so it wasn’t needed, and everyone was safely off the trail by noon.
Shortly after that call, the Grand County Search and Rescue took another at about 4 p.m. following an accident near the Colorado River between Pumphouse and Radium in Gore Canyon.
According to the release, a young woman had fallen about 15 feet in a rocky ravine near Mary’s Wall, and two sheriff’s deputies and a BLM ranger went in from above the ravine on hiking trails to try to find her. At the same time, two local rafters were recruited to bring in volunteers with search and rescue from the river.
Altogether, five volunteers and two EMS paramedics launched from Pumphouse and headed downriver. From the river, they had a short but difficult hike up the ravine to the base of a rock cliff where the woman had fallen.
Once there, paramedics attended to the woman’s injuries and put her on a litter. A rope belay system was then set up to bring the litter down the ravine slowly, and everyone took turns carrying the woman on litter to the rafts.
As expected, the team lost radio communication as soon as the rafts got on the river, and most of the rescue mission had to be monitored by a drone from the sheriff’s office. The drone was also helpful lighting the way to the Radium boat ramp, as the team rafted out in the dark.
Everyone was safely on shore by 8:30 p.m., and the rescue team is thankful for the rafters who helped out.
The woman and her friends were reportedly hiking off trail with tubes to get to the river, and she appeared to be wearing flip-flops. In the release, the rescue team reminded people to always have proper footwear when hiking, avoid hiking off trail and stick to established river put-ins.