A 13-year-old boy fell over 70 feet into the Grand Canyon on Tuesday.
According to a statement from the National Park Service, the Grand Canyon National Park’s Search and Rescue (SAR) team responded to the teenager after he had fallen about 70 to 100 feet over the edge of Bright Angel Point near the North Rim of the canyon.
The team successfully rescued the adolescent using rope “to safely raise him to the rim” once they determined that they could not retrieve him via helicopter, the release said. He was then flown to a pediatric trauma center, where he remains in stable condition as of Thursday.
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“I can say with great confidence that [the rescuers] put to use advanced medical skills in an austere environment that are rarely executed in most other places,” Preventive Search and Rescue Supervisor Meghan Smith said in the statement. “It’s clear that their training and hard work paid off, leading to a smooth, timely operation that will no doubt lead to better outcomes for this patient.”
The Bright Angel Point is described by the National Park Service as a “narrow, paved path” that “drops dramatically on both sides in some places and certain sections are surprisingly steep.”
The Grand Canyon National Park urges visitors to “stay on designated trails and walkways and always keep a safe distance of at least six feet (2 m) from the edge of the rim,” according to the National Park Service’s statement.
The last time the SAR team responded to a park visitor falling over the edge was on Aug. 22, 2022, when a 44-year-old man fell 200 feet to his death in the same area, where he was off the trail, the National Park Service said.
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Source: HIS Education