BASE jumper injured in Rock Canyon
Ian Maule, Daily Herald
The victim of a base jumping accident is lowered down a hillside by emergency responders at the mouth of Rock Canyon in Provo on Friday, Sept. 12, 2014. The victim was conscious and speaking when he was taken away by ambulance.
September 12, 2014 3:56 pm
PROVO -- Provo firefighters and a medical helicopter were dispatched Friday to Rock Canyon in an effort to rescue a BASE jumper who fell in the canyon.
At about 2:30 p.m. the Provo Fire Department dispatched a team of rescuers to the canyon to provide aid to the jumper. Those on scene told the Daily Herald the jumper crashed after his parachute deployed. He was located by rescuers about a quarter of a mile up the trail in the canyon.
Crews found him semiconscious and breathing. A medical helicopter was called out to assist in the operation but was not used.
According to Captain Dean York with Provo Fire, the jumper was originally thought to be a 20-year-old man but was later identified to be approximately 45 years old.
He was transported to Utah Valley Regional Hospital in critical condition but is now stable. He was reported as semiconscious in the hospital with a head injury. The man was complaining of pain in the right side of his upper body.
York said the man jumped from a common BASE jumping area within the canyon. He said the cliff is about 250 to 300 feet high, but the man hit the wall of the cliff a number of times which caused his parachute to collapse and sent him falling down the face of the mountain.
Will Terry, a regular hiker in the canyon, witnessed the fall and was one of the first to contact authorities about the incident. Terry said the jumper let out a few happy screams at first when he jumped, but when complications occurred he could tell the jumper was trying to protect himself in the fall.
Terry said rescue crews responded quickly after his phone call.
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