Search and rescue volunteers in California carried out a dramatic midnight rescue after a hiker became trapped under a large boulder in the Inyo Mountains, located between Sequoia and Death Valley national parks.
Inyo County Search & Rescue, a volunteer organization that works in tandem with the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office, said it was alerted about the trapped hiker on the afternoon of Dec. 5.
Two rescue volunteers were deployed to an area below the Santa Rita Flat via a helicopter supplied by the California Highway Patrol while seven other rescuers followed in vehicles.
The team “arrived at the hiker’s location well after dark,” and found the hiker “in great pain with his left leg pinned beneath a large boulder on a steep hillside,” according to a Friday Facebook post.
Rescuers estimated that the boulder weighed somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 pounds.
Photos of the rescue showed a very rocky and rugged terrain with numerous large boulders in the area.
With “limited resources” to lift the heavy boulder, rescuers fashioned a system of ropes and pulleys and used leverage to shift the rock enough to free the trapped hiker.
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The hiker suffered serious injuries in the seven hours he was pinned beneath the boulder.
“Due to the seriousness of the hiker’s injuries and the difficulty of the terrain, it was decided to extricate the hiker despite the darkness using a helicopter from US Naval Air Station Lemoore,” rescue officials wrote.
With no suitable place for the helicopter to land, “a US Navy medic rappelled from the helicopter to the scene, and the injured hiker and medic were hoisted into the helicopter and flown to Fresno for treatment after midnight.”
The injured hiker was not identified by name and no update on his condition was given.
Search and rescue officials wrote that they encountered many challenges in their mission to free the hiker, including difficulties accessing the remote and rocky location, coordinating with multiple agencies, and stabilizing the man’s injuries for “several hours while awaiting the helicopter extrication.”
Rescuers worked through these obstacles in “chilly December darkness.”
Many of the comments under the Facebook post made by the Inyo County Search & Rescue sang the praises of the rescue team.
“You all are heroes. Thank you for your service,” one commenter wrote.
“So grateful for the people that voluntarily put their lives on the line to help people in crisis,” another wrote. “You amaze me.”
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