UKC

This just popped up for me on social media - it's quite a read! https://www.climbing.com/news/major-climbing-accident-rescue-black-canyon/

Hope the injured climber makes a full and swift recovery, and a big round of applause for the rescue team. The film clip of the chopper doing the pick up shows what an impressive bit of flying that was too. 

Interesting politics within the NPS at the end of the story, I guess a reflection on what the ever lower tax antics of the GOP mean in reality.

I read it earlier Toby, what an epic and complicated rescue, they did an excellent job. Let’s hope she makes a full recovery. The rescue situation there doesn’t bode well for the future.

Blimey.  I was at the BCotG this morning, though on the south side, just visiting (and frequently walking round in slack-jawed astonishment at the scenery).  

Even from that one brief visit, I think you'd more skill, competence, speed and bottle than I ever had to climb there.  Best wishes for a full recovery to the climber and enormous respect to everyone involved in the rescue.  It's a seriously impressive thing to have done.

T.

Sounds impressive in respects, the decision making of her second, the management of the on ground rescue and the flying. 

Massively impressive technical rescue and her partner made a really tough decision (leaving her alone to get help) which saved her life.

Appalling decision from the administration, I would hope that this incident underlines that his decisions can cost lives.

It also struck me that the initial call handling was appalling, as was the uncertainty about the helicopter.

A very impressive story, the sheer competence of all involved to pull that off.

And being an American climbing rescue story there's the standard appeal for help with medical expenses, so mundane that it's just slipped in there, but a stark reminder of where we'd be without the NHS.

and in the UK it’s a stark reminder of where we’d be without mountain rescue; who are all volunteers 

 NPS and GOP ?  Sorry 

National Park Service and Grand Old Party aka the Republican party.

It really is an amazing canyon. One of the few places I have just lost my bottle and refused to abseil in, as when it came to actually committing I just wasn't feeling it.

The commitment of abseiling in to do the south rim routes is immense. The idea that if something goes wrong you will need to abseil off, back into the canyon, find the river crossing point, cross the Tyrolean, find the correct gully to escape up out of to the north rim and then run to the ranger station/car to get help weighs on the mind.

The difficulty of this rescue from the north rim sounded bad enough.

There is excellent climbing though.

Thanks Pedro, sorry Barry. Exactly this. Although you might want to for "Grand Ol' Party" if you are trying to sound "folksy".  

Imagine climbing a multipitch E1 with medical equipment to a time-sensitive medical emergency. Give that guy a raise!

Sounds like a nightmare rescue on many levels, but very interesting to hear how difficult getting a helicopter was for them. I'm glad that we have such a good service to call on, which is essentially free at point of use, saving us on doing massive manual rescues most of the time.