A five-hour rescue operation saved a Utah man who had become stranded on a cliff near Jones Hole National Fish Hatchery in Uintah County on Saturday. A news release from Uintah County Sheriff’s Office states that the rescue operation began when a group, which included a member of the Wasatch County Sheriff’s search and rescue team, camping near the hatchery heard someone calling for help. They worked to locate the person but echoes off the cliff walls made it impossible to find the precise location. Central Dispatch was called at 1:40pm and the Uintah County search and rescue team was mobilized. Helicopter crews from the Utah Department of Public Safety and Classic Air Medical were called. The Classic Air Medical crew spotted the 52-year-old injured man on the cliff but could not reach him due to steep terrain. The Uintah County search and rescue team were also able to pinpoint the man’s location using a camera-equipped drone. Information was provided to the Department of Public Safety helicopter crew and they were able to reach the man and hoist him off the cliff, shares Uintah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Dustin Cheshire. The man told rescuers he had started climbing up a slot in the cliff earlier Saturday morning and made it about three-quarters of the way up before falling and losing consciousness. “The area he was climbing in is out of the way,” explains Sgt. Cheshire. “You wouldn’t really expect someone to be climbing there. If it hadn’t been for the camping group with a Wasatch County search and rescue member who heard this guy yelling and screaming, it’s unlikely anyone would have found him…Without the helicopters, we might still be working with ropes to get him down off the cliff.” The man was flown to St. Mary’s Medical Center in Grand Junction, Colorado to be treated for a suspected head injury and injuries to his lower extremities that prevented him from using his legs.
