Man falls 25-feet while climbing Beacon Rock, rescued after 5-hour-long operation

By Noor Shami

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    SKAMANIA COUNTY, Washington (KPTV) — The Vancouver Fire Department said one person was hurt while rock climbing at Beacon Rock State Park Thursday.

Two rock climbers were using ropes to ascend a defined climbing path on Beacon Rock when a man fell approximately 25 feet and landed on a ledge 200 feet off the ground.

Skamania County Sheriff’s Office, Skamania County EMS and a rescue team responded to reports of a hurt rock climbers. When crews arrived at the scene, they developed a plan to reach the hurt climber using a complex rope and pulley system. Three firefighters ascended the 200 foot rock wall to reach the man.

Crews reached the man and evaluated him. Crews said he was in a lot pain due to a traumatic hip injury, so they treated him on the scene. The firefighters placed the climber in a metal basket for extrication to the ground using the rope and pulley system. The rescue took five hours.

The climber was taken to an area hospital for treatment.

“This was a really tough one. This was a once in a career rescue effort. This is why we spend hundreds of hours training for an event like this. Everyone worked well together and performed professionally and proficiently,” said a VFD battalion chief on scene who was the previous tech team coordinator. “That was the hardest tech call of my 30-year career. We were on plan D and E. There were so many variables and our last rescuer came off the rock in the dark.”

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