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| Hiking | 3.74 Miles |
1,422 AEG |
| | Hiking | 3.74 Miles | 2 Hrs 39 Mns | | 2.55 mph |
| 1,422 ft AEG | 1 Hour 11 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | As many people know there was a recovery on Camelback Mountain. I witnessed most of the process. The victim was a 56 year old man from England that was searching for a specific type of lizard per Fox & ABC news. The following is my account of the recovery. I feel people can learn from this tragedy with the hope it doesn’t happen again.
I started my hike from the Cholla parking on Invergordon around 4:30pm on a hot afternoon. I walked up the sidewalk and noticed several emergency vehicles right at the turn for Cholla lane. I asked a ranger if the mountain was open to hiking and he said yes. I continued on to the true trailhead and it was packed with two firetrucks & several other emergency vehicles. I walked by a crowd of first responders and one of them asked if I had plenty of water and I said yes. I started my hike.
As I headed up the trail I passed a couple of hikers and asked what was going on. They said there was a possible dead body but didn’t have details. I continued on and then talked to another hiker who had more info. He said a hiker spotted a blue shirt way off trail and two rangers were at the scene awaiting more help. He said it was a recovery at this point and told me where to look.
I continued up the mountain and as I approached the saddle I looked down to the right and saw the two rangers. They were roughly 400 ft below the trail in a very unusual location that was very far off trail. I decided to continue to summit & would see if that provides a better vantage point. From there I hit the summit and looked back several times. I got a very good perspective on the scene.
After hitting the summit I returned to the saddle and found a good position to look down on the recovery. I talked to another hiker but he didn’t have anything else to add. I was getting ready to head down when the SAR helicopter flew over and then circled back to the landing zone on the saddle and dropped off two SAR personnel. The two rangers below yelled up to us and asked us to show the SAR team where they were. At this point I walked over towards the landing zone and waited for them to exit and the helicopter to fly away. Once clear I told the SAR personnel I would point them towards the way down. We walked east and they told me the victim was a foreigner who was not familiar with the trail. They then started to climb down but the route was sketchy. I pleaded with them to continue farther to the east where a safer route was located. I was relieved they took my advice and climbed back up. From there they headed about two hundred yards to the east and then they started the descent.
I hung out on the trail while they climbed down which took about 15 minutes. They arrived at the scene and I could hear some of their conversation. The next 30 minutes involved taking pictures and packaging the victim in the basket. I then heard them radio for the helicopter and it arrived about five minutes later. The helicopter slowly flew overhead and lowered the line. The team on the ground hooked it up and then the victim was slowly raised. Once they were secure the helicopter flew away and it was over. I started my descent & headed home.
Looking back on the situation and hearing the news reports about the victim looking for lizards, it’s my guess he was off trail and was overcome with heat and slipped and fell. Going off trail is dangerous & help can be far away. I’m sure more news will come out over the coming days. This is really sad because it all could have been avoided. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
