Severe ankle injury in fall in Little Cottonwood Canyon

Rock climber suffers severe ankle injury in fall in Little Cottonwood Canyon

A rock climber suffered a severe ankle injury Friday when he fell about 40 feet, according to rescue crews. The man was climbing Granite Mountain, about a mile up Little Cottonwood Canyon, when a piece of his climbing gear apparently malfunctioned and he fell approximately 40 feet [...] (R)escuers were forced to put a tourniquet on the man's leg due to the extent of injury to his ankle and leg.

Sounds like a serious injury, hope the climber can make a full recovery.

Elisa R wrote:
Rock climber suffers severe ankle injury in fall in Little Cottonwood Canyon

Sounds like a serious injury, hope the climber can make a full recovery.

Ouch.  Yeah if they needed a tourniquet for an ankle injury there was probably severe trauma.  40 feet up is a long way to the ground.

I hope they make a full recovery.

Climbing gear rarely malfunctions, interested in what actually happened up there. 40’ is a ways to go, could have easily been fatal. Best wishes to  the climber involved and respect for the rescuers who keep us alive when sh*t goes south.

Cron wrote: Climbing gear rarely malfunctions, interested in what actually happened up there. 40’ is a ways to go, could have easily been fatal. Best wishes to  the climber involved and respect for the rescuers who keep us alive when sh*t goes south.

Musta been that Mad Rock belay device!

Is a belayer considered a piece of climbing gear?

Does anyone know where Granite Mountain is?

Scott Biegert wrote: I believe it is in Utah 

Yes, but where in the great Beehive State can one find it?

Thanks Scott, that's really helpful!
I seriously doubt they were climbing at the LDS vaults though. I was merely commenting on the awful reporting of climbing accidents, definitely not a new phenomenon. Climbing gear malfunctions when it rips out of the rock, not usually the gear's fault though. A 40' fall can be fatal, be inconsequential, or anything in between. So can a 3' fall.
Best wishes to the climber, Life Flight and a tourniquet sound gnarly.

Cron wrote: Climbing gear rarely malfunctions,....

If a piece pulls, a person (reporter) who knows nothing about climbing could easily say it malfunctioned. Don't take climbing accident reports in the media too literally.

Marc801 C wrote: If a piece pulls, a person (reporter) who knows nothing about climbing could easily say it malfunctioned. Don't take climbing accident reports in the media too literally.

Agree Marc. That what I was alluding to in not so many words. We know almost nothing at this point so trying to keep speculating to a minimum.

I’m guessing altered states gulley or somewhere else nearby to the granite mountain vaults.

Or, he was climbing A granite mountain. Which could be eluding to anywhere in the canyon.  I hope he and his partners are ok and on a healing trajectory.

For those not familiar with the area, the LDS church owns almost all of the land where the climbing is on one side of the canyon (hundreds of pitches) and they let climbers freely access all of the buttresses except the one that their Granite Mountain storage vault is drilled into ( in 1960) to protect and store microfilm and sensitive documents.

The Mormon pioneers used granite from the canyon to build the temple and other buildings in SLC way back in the day. There are boulder problems that climb the old drilled spikes on the edges of big blocks that were rolled down from above 150 years ago. 

He fell on Sasquatch and zippered a few stoppers. 

sfotex wrote: He fell on Sasquatch and zippered a few stoppers. 

Let's hear it for accurate reporting!

For those unfamiliar, that's on the other side of the canyon and well east of the Granite Mountain LDS vaults.
That article also had a really curious last paragraph: where the injured climber was airlifted then flown up-canyon to Snowbird where it landed and he was loaded into "the helicopter" for transport to a local hospital. I think can sorta maybe guess what the writer was trying to say, but he failed miserably in doing so.

Marc801 C wrote:

Let's hear it for accurate reporting!

For those unfamiliar, that's on the other side of the canyon and well east of the Granite Mountain LDS vaults.
That article also had a really curious last paragraph: where the injured climber was airlifted then flown up-canyon to Snowbird where it landed and he was loaded into "the helicopter" for transport to a local hospital. I think can sorta maybe guess what the writer was trying to say, but he failed miserably in doing so.

The Life Flight hoist configuration doesn't allow for the patient to be brought into the helicopter in flight, so they land asap to bring the patient into the ship, and then go to the hospital. But yeah, reporters are usually clueless about climbing. 

I was on the scene, can confirm he was on sasquatch and had nuts zipper out. He was airlifted with a serious foot injury, and is predicted for a full recovery, thank you for the concern. 

Also ended up with an extra cam in the calamity please contact me if you were around and are missing a cam.