In Nevada, first responders executed a dramatic rescue operation lasting seven hours after a climber found themselves in a precarious situation, suffering serious injuries approximately 600 feet up a steep rock face near Las Vegas.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) reported that search and rescue teams were alerted around noon on Saturday regarding an injured climber on the “Dream Safari” route on Dark Shadows Wall in Pine Creek.
According to authorities, the climber had fallen between 40 to 50 feet, resulting in severe injuries to the head and back.
The climber’s partner, along with a guide from another group, managed to reach the injured person and provided first aid to control the bleeding while waiting for rescue teams to arrive.
Rescue teams carefully secured the injured climber in a titanium litter, gradually lowering the individual down the rock face in a series of stages.
Four search and rescue officers, along with a lead climb volunteer, were deployed by the department’s AIR3 helicopter to a position several hundred feet above the climber at the route’s summit.
Rescuers then rappelled down the rock face, provided medical treatment while suspended mid-face, and secured the patient in a titanium litter.
Crews constructed a lowering system and brought the climber several hundred feet down to the ground through three separate lowering stations, with a rescuer attending to the patient during the descent.
Las Vegas police search and rescue teams spent seven hours lowering an injured climber 600 feet to safety. (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)
Once at the base, additional volunteers carried the litter to an extraction point where the helicopter returned to airlift the victim to a Bureau of Land Management helipad.
The climber was then transferred to a ground ambulance and taken to a local hospital.
The climber’s helmet was destroyed in the fall but likely saved the person’s life, officials said. (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)
LVMPD wrote on Facebook that the entire operation lasted about seven hours from initial insertion to final extraction.
“Although the victim’s helmet was destroyed during the fall, it likely saved their life,” police said.
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