A tragic incident occurred in Utah where a hiker lost his life after falling from a mountain, as confirmed by authorities.
The incident took place on Saturday, July 19, at approximately 8.45am local time. The Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call at Bell’s Canyon, Utah, about a man trapped in a rockslide.
Upon reaching the location, they found a 49-year-old man who was unresponsive.
A doctor, who was also hiking nearby, was the first to find the injured hiker and tried to save his life.
Unfortunately, the attempt was unsuccessful, and the man was declared dead on the scene.
It is believed he fell 700 feet after being caught in a rockslide.
The Sheriff’s Office conducted additional searches and confirmed that no one else was injured in the incident.
Heather Hayes, who witnessed the fall, mentioned it took two hours for a helicopter to arrive for assistance.
On that day, Heather and her husband were hiking on the same trail and had multiple interactions with the now-deceased hiker, though she never learned his name.
The three of them conversed at the peak before Heather and her husband began their descent.
The ridge was steep, with loose rocks, according to Heather. She noticed a particularly unstable rock while descending.
After identifying the wobbly stone, she chose a different one, unaware that the hiker was following closely.
He unfortunately stepped on the same unstable rock Heather had noticed earlier.
“I watched him as it loosened on him and he fell backwards,” Heather recounted to KSL.
“It started a cascade of rocks and he called out to me for help, but I couldn’t even process what was happening as the rocks around us loosened and he fell backwards and started rolling down the mountain with the rock slide.”
Heather’s husband and a student nurse who was also nearby climbed down to aid the man, reaching him 10 minutes later to perform CPR. Her husband realized the situation was likely fatal.
As CPR was being administered, another rockslide occurred.
Heather said: “They continued CPR, but we screamed at them to move out of the way because another rockslide was starting. More chair-sized rocks and some larger boulders were flying down the same path towards them so my husband and the other man ran out of the rock path.”
Heather was the last person the hiker spoke to before his tragic end.
Reflecting on this, she said: “I was the last person he spoke to, and I think I was the only one close enough to him to see exactly what happened.”