A Utah hiker had a harrowing experience when he slipped and got his knee wedged in a crack on a cliff in Indian Creek, leaving him stranded for 12 hours, according to authorities.
Once the hiker became stuck at approximately 8 p.m. local time on Generic Crack, “his climbing partners tried to free him with no avail,” the San Juan County UT Search and Rescue said in a press release.
“A call was made to SAR to assist,” per the release. “When the team arrived in the parking lot it was determined we would need Classic Air Medical to fly team members to the top of the cliff so they could repel [sic] down to the stuck male.”
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The San Juan County UT Search and Rescue tried for “several hours” to rescue the man, but needed more help, they said in the release. The agency then contacted Grand County SAR, who came to assist, and the hiker “was free and on the ground safely” with minor injuries, per the release.
“A huge thank you to our partners Classic Air Medical and Grand County SAR,” they concluded. “Without them this rescue would not have been possible.”
Although Generic Crack’s name “is boring (the first ascent party never officially titled it), the climbing is far from it,” according to Climbing magazine. “At 130ft long, the splitter starts at hand-sized and widens to fists at the top. Unlike many Creek cracks, this one has slots that fit big hexes perfectly. There is a 100ft second pitch of 5.10 offwidth, but it’s not done nearly as often as the classic first pitch.”
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