MILLCREEK, Utah — A Utah woman has been honored for her bravery in rescuing a BASE jumper who got stuck on a Moab cliff after slamming into a canyon wall during a jump.
River Barry of Millcreek was awarded the Carnegie Medal for Heroism by The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission after her quick actions that helped save a man's life.
Dramatic video below shows BASE jumper slamming into Moab cliff:
“The second I got had my feet back on the ground, and we had gotten him safely down. I was, did not register that, like I had saved someone's life,” Barry told FOX 13 News. “Like it still feels like surreal doesn't feel real. I'm just grateful. You know, that it all worked out.”
Barry was mountain biking in the Kane Creek Canyon area on Nov. 26, 2022 when she was approached by a friend of the stuck jumper. The unidentified man was participating in a jumping festival when he pulled his parachute and sailed straight into the cliff face.
“So I'm in the parking lot. I see the guy hanging in the air. stranger comes up and is like, does anybody in the parking lot have rock climbing gear, and I was the only one that had responded.”
Hearing what had happened, Barry sprang into action with the climbing gear in her van.
“My heart was pounding through my chest, but I was in go-mode,” Barry told Climbing.com. “It’s like you don’t think, you just do.”
Barry also quickly realized she was the only one around with the necessary climbing skills to help the injured man. Her instincts kicked in. With the help of the man’s friend, Justin Beitler, belaying her from the ground. She got to the man and was able to bring him down safely.
Ascending a crack on the cliff that that locals claimed had never been climbed before, Barry was able to reach a point above the jumper and clip her harness to his. She then cut his parachute loose and bore the man's weight as they both descended to the ground.
“River just looked at the situation and said she’d lean into the wall and hope for the best if that happened. And then she just headed up there anyway — for some dude and a group of people she didn’t even know,” the jumper's friend, Justin Beitler, told Climbing.com. “I was really impressed.”
Barry speaks below about her actions at ceremony honoring her in 2023:
After the rescue, the jumper was transported to the hospital in critical condition where he was later treated for a compound fracture to his leg.
The Carnegie Medal for Heroism is awarded to those who risk their own lives to "extraordinary degree" to save others
“That day made me realize, one, the fragility of human life and, two, the human capacity to just do,” Barry told Climbing.com. “The human mind and body and soul have such a capacity to show up for someone in need.
“I’m grateful to have been able to be there and be able to do my part.”
But more than any award or recognition, Barry is proud to have formed a life-long bond with the man she saved.
“Just just a special bond, you know, I feel connected with this person in like a really interesting way. Like it's like a deep relationship despite, like, such brief interactions. I went and stayed with him in Australia. And that really helped with our connection.”
