For those of you living in the Las Vegas area, this occurred in our backyard. On a technical rock climbing route out at Red Rock Canyon known as "Frogland". An incredible story, incredible video, and the fact that the Las Vegas SAR Team was able to safely retrieve this injured climber is just as incredible!
We would like to thank Kevin Riley of Action in Solitude for allowing us to share this story.
(Video) Rock climber rescued in Red Rock Canyon, Las Vegas on the classic route Frogland (5.8)
On November 30th 2013, Ian Valley and I decided to get on
Frogland, a mega-classic route on the Whiskey Peak formation in Red
Rocks. After I led the first wandering pitch (not the actual first pitch
but pretty cool nonetheless) we arrived at a bolted anchor. Someone
then alerted us that there was a helicopter coming (unbeknownst to us
the incident had already happened and someone had called 911 to activate
Search and Rescue).
At some point that morning, Dani Ramos from the Bay Area started leading the 3rd pitch. After traversing out, he started moving up a crack having clipped a bolt and placing two pieces. At this point his foot blew and he fell approximately 15-20 ft. upside down, allegedly breaking his right arm and causing injuries of unknown severity to his right leg.
After Search and Rescue was activated they arrived by helicopter below the initial pitches of Frogland. The helicopter pilot would set the ship down on one skid on top of a large boulder, to let the SAR members out one by one. Initially one of the members led the first two pitches of the route, after arriving at the large belay ledge (which happened to be pretty crowded with 6 people on it) where the injured party was located, they fixed lines for lowering Dani in a basket.After a few more SAR members arrived on scene they proceeded to raise the litter up to Dani, get him packaged and lower him down below the beginning of the route. At this point the helicopter came back in with a long line to extract Dani and one of the Search and Rescue team members back to ground transport and/or the hospital.
We hope for Dani’s quick recovery so he can get back on the rock soon!
At some point that morning, Dani Ramos from the Bay Area started leading the 3rd pitch. After traversing out, he started moving up a crack having clipped a bolt and placing two pieces. At this point his foot blew and he fell approximately 15-20 ft. upside down, allegedly breaking his right arm and causing injuries of unknown severity to his right leg.
After Search and Rescue was activated they arrived by helicopter below the initial pitches of Frogland. The helicopter pilot would set the ship down on one skid on top of a large boulder, to let the SAR members out one by one. Initially one of the members led the first two pitches of the route, after arriving at the large belay ledge (which happened to be pretty crowded with 6 people on it) where the injured party was located, they fixed lines for lowering Dani in a basket.After a few more SAR members arrived on scene they proceeded to raise the litter up to Dani, get him packaged and lower him down below the beginning of the route. At this point the helicopter came back in with a long line to extract Dani and one of the Search and Rescue team members back to ground transport and/or the hospital.
We hope for Dani’s quick recovery so he can get back on the rock soon!
About Kevin Riley
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