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Crews respond to injured hiker in Little Cottonwood Canyon

Posted at 6:13 PM, Nov 11, 2013
and last updated 2013-11-12 00:24:26-05

A Salt Lake City man fell while rock climbing with three friends in Little Cottonwood Canyon Monday afternoon.

The 35-year-old man fell 30 feet, hitting his head. It happened two to three miles into the canyon.

The victim was with four friends in a popular climbing area called “Gate Buttress.”

“They had  been climbing throughout the day, they were on their way back down when the victim he was the last one to come off the rock face and he was coming down on the rope and his rope ran out while on belay and then he fell,” said Lt. Justin Hoyal with Unified Police.

The fall happened around 5:15 p.m. and someone in the group called 911.

The man suffered head injuries and is in serious condition, police say.

It took search and rescue crews several hours to pull him off the mountain as they were working with flashlights, head lamps and ropes to lower the victim from a ledge.

“As they’re coming off the rock face they’ll have to lower him down on a belay system and there’s an area with a lot of rocks and debris and they’ll continue that belay system down through that field and once they get to the trail, they’ll carry him out from there,” Hoyal said.