ChrisC
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Daily Planet
Man plummets from 60 foot cliff
By Matthew Beaudin
A 22-year-old man sustained a 60-foot fall just off Bear Creek Trail Saturday afternoon, emerging from the fall with scratches on his face and a quad muscle injury.
"It's just extremely lucky that he landed the way he did and that there's no head injury or back injury," said San Miguel County Search and Rescue member Kim Havell.
The victim, whose name was not released on Monday, was snowshoeing in the area of the lower Bear Creek trail near the Roma Chutes - the chute visible from town just above the Bear Creek Trailhead. He came to rest after the plummet off the cliffs about 500 feet from the lower section of the trail.
But the man is lucky, and not just because he survived the fall. Havell was running down the trail that afternoon when she heard a voice through the woods. She came around a corner and saw two others the man had been hiking with. Once she realized they were looking for someone, she located the victim up the chute before running down to town and contacting the search and rescue team.
The man, Havell said, was coherent and could move and speak just after the fall.
"The injuries sustained were incredible considering the fall he took," she said.
That was just after 3 p.m. By 4 p.m., the team was on its way to evacuate the man.
The rescue called for a low-angle evacuation by approximately seven SAR members and a short snowmobile ride down the remainder of the Bear Creek Trail.
Just over two hours later, at 6 p.m. the victim was taken to the Telluride Medical Center.
"It was very fortuitous that I happened to be there at that time," Havell said of the encounter. Had she not been trotting down the trail at that time, the rescue could have gone later into the night, she said. "We all would have all probably missed New Year's," she said.
Man plummets from 60 foot cliff
By Matthew Beaudin
A 22-year-old man sustained a 60-foot fall just off Bear Creek Trail Saturday afternoon, emerging from the fall with scratches on his face and a quad muscle injury.
"It's just extremely lucky that he landed the way he did and that there's no head injury or back injury," said San Miguel County Search and Rescue member Kim Havell.
The victim, whose name was not released on Monday, was snowshoeing in the area of the lower Bear Creek trail near the Roma Chutes - the chute visible from town just above the Bear Creek Trailhead. He came to rest after the plummet off the cliffs about 500 feet from the lower section of the trail.
But the man is lucky, and not just because he survived the fall. Havell was running down the trail that afternoon when she heard a voice through the woods. She came around a corner and saw two others the man had been hiking with. Once she realized they were looking for someone, she located the victim up the chute before running down to town and contacting the search and rescue team.
The man, Havell said, was coherent and could move and speak just after the fall.
"The injuries sustained were incredible considering the fall he took," she said.
That was just after 3 p.m. By 4 p.m., the team was on its way to evacuate the man.
The rescue called for a low-angle evacuation by approximately seven SAR members and a short snowmobile ride down the remainder of the Bear Creek Trail.
Just over two hours later, at 6 p.m. the victim was taken to the Telluride Medical Center.
"It was very fortuitous that I happened to be there at that time," Havell said of the encounter. Had she not been trotting down the trail at that time, the rescue could have gone later into the night, she said. "We all would have all probably missed New Year's," she said.