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A 30-year-old hiker was rescued by emergency personnel after he fell over 1,200 feet down a ravine in Washington State. The Naval Air Station on Whidbey Island said the man tumbled down the ravine near the top of Mt. Ellinor in Olympic National Forest, according to a press release.
Officials said they dispatched a search and rescue team around 6:20 p.m. Saturday (December 16) after the hiker's partner wasn't able to contact him. After rescue crews found "no trace of the hiker" near the top of the mountain, they started searching at the bottom of a huge avalanche runout about 1,000 feet down from the peak.
"During that search they saw a flashing light near a boulder field slightly below the avalanche runout, and more than 1,200 feet below where he initially fell," the release states.
The search team lowered a crew member to the hiker's location and quickly hoisted the victim onto the helicopter to avoid "the risk of further avalanches or rock falls," officials wrote.
SAR said the hiker suffered a broken arm, "significant" abrasions, and showed symptoms of hypothermia. He was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
No word on his condition as of Tuesday afternoon (December 19).