LITTLE COTTONWOOD CANYON, Utah – A 29-year-old climber is in serious condition after falling about 30 feet in Little Cottonwood Canyon.
Officials said a man was climbing with some friends in the Gate Buttress area of the Canyon Tuesday just after 9:30 p.m. when he fell.
Police said he had been climbing an area of the rock that was straight-faced and very technical.
The climber was seriously injured in the fall.
A couple dozen Unified officers, firefighters and search and rescue team members were needed for the rescue.
Authorities said getting the climber off the mountain was such a challenge because of the darkness and the terrain where he fell.
“Now they’ve got to lower him down off a rock field that`s got extremely large boulders, probably the size of cars up there, so they’ve got to lower him down off that and that`s gonna take a couple hours as they do that technical lowering down over those rocks,” Lt. Justin Hoyal said.
The injured climber was flown to the hospital after a nearly three-hour rescue.
