{"id":100565,"date":"2018-04-08T13:09:34","date_gmt":"2018-04-08T19:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rock-fall-injures-climbers-northeast-of-durango\/"},"modified":"2018-04-08T13:09:34","modified_gmt":"2018-04-08T19:09:34","slug":"rock-fall-injures-climbers-northeast-of-durango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rock-fall-injures-climbers-northeast-of-durango\/","title":{"rendered":"Rock fall injures climbers northeast of Durango"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>

Rock fall injured two women Saturday afternoon at the climbing area north of Lemon Reservoir, about 20 miles northeast of Durango.<\/p>\n

Tom Brueckner of La Plata County Search and Rescue said a rock three times the size of a microwave dislodged above the woman climbing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hit both the climber and the belayer on the ground,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Brueckner said Search and Rescue and Pine River Fire Protection District responded shortly before 2 p.m. to the scene.<\/p>\n

It took about two hours to rescue the climbers, during which crews had to cross the Florida River and perform a technical rope rescue.<\/p>\n

\u201cPatient contact was made on the south side of the river, but they had to be transported across the stream and then raised on the north side up a steep embankment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The extent of the climbers\u2019 injuries is unknown, as well as their identities, Brueckner said.<\/p>\n

A Flight for Life helicopter landed on the scene, but the climbers were taken to Mercy Regional Medical Center by ambulance about 3:40 p.m.<\/p>\n

Rock fall, although not uncommon, is not typically so severe, Brueckner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is common is smaller rocks the size of a fist falling,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat makes it dangerous is the increase in speed of the rock.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did not know if either woman was wearing a helmet.<\/p>\n

Brueckner said the rescue was \u201crelatively simple\u201d because the river flow is low, and crews train in the area multiple times a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a very popular climbing area in the spring and summer because it opens relatively early,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

There has been an increase in climbing accidents over the last two years, Brueckner said.<\/p>\n

A 40-year-old rock climber from Durango fell 100 feet from the \u201cHoly Grail\u201d route in September at Transfer Park near Lemon Reservoir.<\/p>\n

Thad Ferrell suffered serious injuries Sept. 9, 2017, to his jaw, pelvis and right ankle in the accident.<\/p>\n

Brueckner said there is likely a correlation between accidents and the number of climbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cSports climbing in general has become more popular over the years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He cautioned people enjoying the outdoors to always be prepared for the unexpected.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou should always have a cellphone and a whistle,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can blow a whistle all day long, and it carries much further than a voice does. Even though it\u2019s warm during the day now, make sure to carry layers for an unexpected outing at night.\u201d<\/p>\n

mrupani@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

taken to Mercy Regional Medical Center by ambulance<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[1807,2892,1370],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-100565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-la-plata-county-search-and-rescue","tag-lemon-reservoir","tag-upper-pine-river-fire-protection-district"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100565"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=100565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}