The Sun
YUMA, Ariz. — A Search and Rescue helicopter from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma rescued a 22-year-old hiker Saturday afternoon who had climbed up a rock structure and couldn’t make it back down.
“He was completely uninjured, just stranded. He was also showing symptoms of heat exhaustion.” said 1st. Lt. Katie Whichard, of the MCAS Yuma Public Affairs Office. “The entire rescue took less than two hours. It was a rapid response.”
According to Whichard, the air station received a call from the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office dispatch reporting the stranded hiker at about 12:20 p.m. The information available at time of notification, she said, was that a group of six people was out hiking when one of the members climbed to up to a point where he did not feel comfortable climbing down.
An air crew of three Marines and a Navy corpsman departed MCAS Yuma for the Castle Dome area and were on scene in just over an hour, arriving by about 1:40 p.m. Since the stranded hiker’s vehicle was reported to be in the vicinity, Whichard said, the air crew began a short linear search along Castle Dome Road, eventually locating the vehicle and the other five hikers, then learned the location and condition of the stranded hiker.
“When they found the other hikers, they were able to point to where the stranded hiker was,” Whichard said.
Whichard said the hiker was located on the side of a 500-foot-tall rock structure, about 400 feet high on a small sloping ledge of a rock face. A rescue corpsman, who remained hooked up to the aircraft, rappelled down to the stranded hiker and hooked up to him with a rescue strop.
From there the hiker and corpsman were lifted and lowered to an area near the base of the rock structure. Whichard said once on the ground, the corpsman was able to administer medical attention to the hiker, who was showing symptoms of heat exhaustion. The Search and Rescue helicopter later airlifted the hiker to Yuma Regional Medical Center for further attention.
YCSO and the Arizona Game and Fish Department also responded to the scene.
Copyright 2013 The Sun
All Rights Reserved