Photo: Las Vegas Police Department
A seriously injured climber was rescued from a steep rock face near Las Vegas after a grueling seven-hour operation carried out by search and rescue crews last Saturday (March 1).
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) Search and Rescue (SAR) team received a call around noon on Saturday (February 28) about an injured climber on the "Dream Safari" route along Dark Shadows Wall in Pine Creek, located within Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.
The climber had fallen an estimated 40 to 50 feet, suffering severe head and back injuries, and was stranded roughly 600 feet above the ground at the top of the first pitch of the route.
Before rescue crews arrived, the victim's climbing partner and a guide from another climbing party reached the injured climber and worked to control the bleeding.
LVMPD's AIR3 helicopter inserted four SAR officers and a lead climb volunteer several hundred feet above the victim, at the top of the route. From there, the team rappelled down the rock face to reach the climber. Once on-scene, rescuers provided medical treatment while suspended mid-face and secured the patient in a titanium litter.
The team then built a lowering system and brought the climber down through three separate lowering stations, with a rescuer attending to the patient the entire way down. Additional lead climb and mountain rescue volunteers met the team at the base and carried the litter to an extraction point.
AIR3 returned to airlift the victim to a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) helipad, where a ground ambulance was waiting to transport the climber to a local hospital.
LVMPD noted on social media that the full operation lasted roughly seven hours from start to finish. "Although the victim's helmet was destroyed during the fall, it likely saved their life," police said. "We continue to check in with the victim and he's continuing to recover and in good spirits," the department added.