Over Memorial Day weekend, search-and-rescue groups in three different states responded to reports of hikers plummeting over waterfalls. The incidents—in California, Virginia, and Utah, respectively—resulted in three serious injuries and one death.
The first accident occurred on May 25, in Butte County, California. A hiker was wandering in a remote area near Pugla when they slipped and fell approximately 30 feet over a cascade and into the rocky pool below. First responders hoisted the victim out by helicopter, leaving them dangling at the end of a 150-foot rope from the aircraft’s belly, before landing and transferring them to an ambulance.
The next day, on May 26, two hikers climbed over a guardrail near Virginia’s Crabtree Falls to snap a photo and slipped. One of the pair fell about 50 feet before she managed to grab hold of a rock. She held herself in place until deputies from the Nelson County Sheriff’s Office arrived. In this instance, rescuers were not able to call a helicopter in time; they used a 30-foot dog leash to haul the survivor out. The other hiker fell more than 150 feet and did not survive.
That same day, near Layton, Utah, a 64-year-old man was hiking beside Adams Canyon’s Lower Falls when he lost his footing and plummeted 20 feet. Rescuers reported that he sustained a head injury and broke his femur and kneecap. A nurse who happened to be hiking nearby provided first aid until rescuers from the Davis County Sheriff’s Office arrived. They ultimately extracted the patient via long-line helicopter rescue. He is expected to make a full recovery.
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While hiking and scrambling near waterfalls is perilous any time of year, these three incidents serve as a reminder that rainy spring weather and rapid snowmelt can contribute to particularly dangerous conditions. Higher currents can mean more spray, increasing the radius of wet and slick stones surrounding a cascade. The streams above and below the waterfall also run higher and faster in the spring, making crossings far more dangerous than they might be later in the summer when flow rates have leveled out.
“It doesn’t look like it’d be slippery, when you realize it is, it’s too late,” Wintergreen Fire and EMS Chief Curtis Sheets told ABC News after the Crabtree Falls incident. Davis County Search and Rescue echoed the warning in their own Facebook post: “Today’s incident is a reminder to stay safe while hiking near rushing water and steep terrain.”