Search and Rescue crews respond to fatal BASE jumper accident, two mountain bike injuries
Jul 25, 2022, 3:51 PM | Updated: Feb 13, 2023, 2:50 pm
Grand County SAR teams respond to three separate incidents.
GRAND COUNTY, Utah — Search and rescue crews responded to three separate incidents in Grand County last week, including a fatal BASE jumping incident.
According to Grand County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue, all three incidents happened within 48 hours from each other across the county.
The first incident involved a 53-year-old biker who seriously hurt his leg on the Big Mesa bike trail on July 19. He crawled for several hours to get cell service to call 911.
Crews were able to fly to his location and got him to a nearby hospital.
The next morning, a 32-year-old man died in a BASE jumping accident near Parriott Mesa in Castle Valley.
Crews had trouble reaching the victim’s body as he was about 1,000 feet from the valley floor on top of a rugged and hazardous talus slope.
They set up a rope system to lower the body by about 100 feet to collect him. It was a 6-hour operation to get to him, according to search and rescue.
The last incident happened late Thursday afternoon as a 50-year-old man crashed his bike on a remote section of the Porcupine Rim Trail.
He was able to call 911, and helicopter medical crews responded since it would take several hours for ground teams to reach him. The biker was safely transported to the hospital.
