UPDATE: The BC Coroners Service has identified the victim as Taylor Samuel Archer.
NEAR VERNON – A rock climbing accident in the north Okanagan has claimed the life of a young man.
He was scaling a rock outcrop with a friend Saturday evening on a forest service road south of Coldstream when he fell.
The 18 year old suffered severe head injuries and died at the scene. Police say he wasn’t wearing a helmet or using other safety equipment.
“He lost his balance and fell about 35 to 45 feet,” says Vernon RCMP spokesperson Gord Molendyk.
The rock face is heavily fragmented and it’s covered with moss and sprinkled with loose rocks.
It would be very easy for one to suddenly let loose. From the pieces of rock and moss at the base of the outcrop, it appears that’s what happened.
Molendyk says a coroners service investigation will determine if intoxication possibly played a role in the fatal accident.
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