PROVO CANYON, Utah, July 18, 2021 (Gephardt Daily) — A man fell to his death while hiking near Bridal Veil Falls Saturday evening. His fiancé’s 9-year-old son was hiking with him, but was uninjured, according to Utah County Sheriff Sgt. Spencer Cannon.
Just after 1 p.m. Sunday, officials identified the victim as Adrian Vanderklis, 40, of Roosevelt.
“We got a call a little after 7 p.m. last night from a woman who said her son and her fiancé were hiking, and they had not returned for at least a couple of hours,” Cannon told Gephardt Daily Sunday morning. “When we got here, after doing some looking, we found a victim was in an area that’s about close to half mile west of Bridal Veil Falls. At about the same elevation.”
Crews were able to reach the location, but determined the victim had died, “probably immediately as a result of the fall,” Cannon said. “Where he was, we couldn’t get him down easily, so with darkness coming, we elected to wait until this morning to make an effort to recover his body which they’re in the process of doing right now,” Cannon said at about 10 a.m.
The caller’s son was unharmed, Cannon said.
“The boy is OK, and hiked down on his own,” he said. “He told us what happened, and that he didn’t actually see it happen. And he was hiking or climbing ahead of this guy. And he said he heard some rocks falling or tumbling, but didn’t see what happened to this guy.”
Cannon said it’s likely the victim did not suffer for long.
“It was just an unfortunate accident,” he said of the man’s fatal fall.
