https://www.facebook.com/slcosar/videos/2283507108565304/
SALT LAKE COUNTY, Utah, Aug. 15, 2019 (Gephardt Daily) — Salt Lake County Sheriff’s search and rescue crews assisted an injured climber in Little Cottonwood Canyon Wednesday afternoon.
SLCOSAR was called out for a climber with a broken ankle at the base of a wall called the Sail at approximately 1:40 p.m., according to a Facebook post.
“The patient was climbing when he fell around 15-20 feet,” the post said. “He lowered the rest of the way to the base of the wall and called friends to see if they could assist him in getting down. Two of his friends showed up to hike up and help when they found a fire crew in the parking lot getting ready to go up canyon.”
They asked fire if they could assist in getting the climber down and several firefighters went up with them, the post said. Once the friends and fire crews got to the patient, they determined that it would be best to call 911.
“At this point, search and rescue was called out and met in the main park and ride at the mouth of the canyon,” the post said. “Several teams took high angle and medical equipment and headed to the patient. Once SAR members got to the patient, it was determined that the safest thing for both the patient and the rescuers would be to fly the patient off the mountain.”
SAR command put in a call to see if the Department of Public Safety helicopter was available to do a hoist while the SAR team on the mountain came up with a backup plan if the helicopter wasn’t available.
“The call came back that DPS was in the air and heading to our location to evaluate,” the post said. “Once they had flown over, they gave us the green light on doing a hoist. They flew back to the canyon road and landed to prep for the hoist while the team on the mountain prepped the patient for the flight.”
DPS was back a few minutes later and lowered their TFO, or Technical Flight Officer, to the location.
“We packaged the patient and hoisted the patient a few minutes later,” the post went on.
Teams on the mountain packed up the gear and headed down the mountain; the rescue was completed by 5:30 p.m.
