According to a press statement from the National Park Service, a man died on Saturday while canyoneering in Utah’s Zion National Park.
Around 6 p.m., the guy, 40, fell unintentionally close to the Heaps Canyon exit and passed away, according to a park service statement on Sunday. His identity was not immediately known.
Along with three other individuals, the man was canyoneering when he fell around 150–200 feet, according to the NPS. When he fell, the party was traveling through the region according to a prearranged timetable.
The guy received emergency medical attention from the Zion National Park Technical Search and Rescue Team and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office after their response, according to the NPS.
The individual was evacuated from the fall site by a Utah Department of Public Safety aircraft to a helispot close to Watchman Campground, where Hurricane Valley Fire and Rescue and Intermountain Life Flight provided further assistance, the agency said. But before he could be taken to a hospital, he was declared dead.
Park Superintendent Jeff Bradybaugh issued a statement saying, “Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the family and friends during this unimaginably difficult time.”
According to the NPS, the death is being looked into by the park and the sheriff’s office.
According to the park service, two of the three other canyoneers were safely removed from the canyon on Sunday morning by a DPS helicopter.
At about 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, the third person successfully descended the canyon with the aid of Zion’s search and rescue team, according to the NPS.
According to the NPS, the reaction encompassed over fifty rescuers, including members of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Hurricane Valley Fire and Rescue, Springdale Police Department, and Intermountain Life Flight.
The park service describes Heaps Canyon as “a strenuous, challenging, technical canyon with an approximate 3,000 foot descent” that “usually takes 12 to 20 hours to complete, consists of a number of rappels into cold water, and ends with a final 280 foot rappel to the Upper Emerald Pool area.” Saturday’s death was not the first canyoneering fatality in the area.
According to the NPS, a 24-year-old man passed away in 2015 after falling while canyoneering there with three other people.
In 2021, another guy, age 31, passed away in the canyon. He missed a tiny rock ledge where he was meant to pause and re-anchor his rope before descending the final distance to the ground, and he was discovered hung on a rope around 260 feet above Upper Emerald Pools.
