I Fell 106 Feet. And Lived.
I Fell 106 Feet. And Lived.
By Kaitlyn Bohlin
As a backcountry ranger in Utah's Zion National Park, I learned how to canyoneer
Note from Iceaxe: As it appears someone edited the story out of the original post, below is is another version of the story. Many are of the opinion that Kaitlyn clipped into the pull rope and not the rappel rope, which is what caused the accident.
Quote:
Backcountry Volunteer Survives 100 Foot Fall While Canyoneering at Zion National Park
Canyoneering is a risky activity, which is why they call it an extreme sport. One canyoneer is lucky to be alive after a botched rappel sent her tumbling 100 feet. Imagine falling that far and living to tell about it.
Kaitlyn Bohlin, a 23-year old backcountry volunteer in Zion National Park, had the day off July 30, so she went canyoneering with a friend. Zion is a wonderful place for canyoneering, probably the single best place in the Lower 48.
The pair chose Pine Creek Canyon, a highly accessible and very popular little slot canyon that’s so deep and twisty and narrow that there are only a few places where sunlight penetrates all the way to the bottom. There are lots of neat things to see and do in the canyon, which typically takes three or four hours to traverse.
Rated 3B II (intermediate difficulty) using the ACA Canyon Rating System, Pine Canyon is a technical route requiring good gear and appropriate skills. There are five exciting rappels of varying length and difficulty. There are cold water pools for swimming and about a mile of creek for wading. And all along there are fantastic shapes carved into the sandstone and wonderful acoustics to go with them. (One place is called the “The Cathedral” because of its acoustics are positively breathtaking.)
Kaitlyn Bohlin is an experienced canyoneer and had successfully negotiated Pine Creek Canyon before. This time, however, something went terribly wrong. As she was attempting the final 100-foot rappel, she fell the entire distance.
Kaitlyn’s companion called for help, using the radio that the young woman had left at the top of the rappel. Rescuers, including a nearby canyoneering group that had heard (but not seen) the fall, quickly came to her aid. When paramedics arrived (after rappelling into the canyon from a window in the Zion Tunnel) they placed the badly injured, but conscious young woman on a litter and transported her a quarter-mile to a place in the canyon suitable for a helicopter short-haul evacuation.
There Kaitlyn was lifted into a hovering Air Force Blackhawk helicopter and flown directly to the University Medical Center in Las Vegas. Having suffered multiple severe traumatic injuries, she remains in critical condition. Officials report that she is receiving intensive care and has shown signs of improvement.
The accident remains under investigation.
