Pine Creek Canyon, climbing route in Scheelite Canyon/Pratt’s Crack Gulley
PINE CREEK CANYON, May 8, 2020 – On May 7 around 1:30pm, the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office received notification of a fall victim with critical injuries in Pine Creek Canyon. The victim, one of a party of two from Bishop, CA, was near the top of a climbing route in Scheelite Canyon/Pratt’s Crack Gulley, roughly 500 feet above the canyon floor.
Inyo County Search and Rescue responded, and after confirming the injured party’s location, a team of two ascended a multi-pitch climbing route to reach the injured party from below. Four additional members ascended 5th-class terrain on the southeast side of the same buttress, where they were able to top out and descend to the injured party with additional rescue equipment. The injured climber was stabilized and lowered in several stages to the base of the canyon. An ambulance from Symons Emergency Specialties provided care at the scene.
Inyo County SAR team readying for rescue
As a reminder Inyo SAR and the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office have released an official request for the recreating public to not participate in high-risk outdoor activities. If you get sick, lost or injured and require SAR assistance, the responding team of volunteers will have to break social distancing and the State mandated Stay at Home Order by sharing rescue equipment, radios, and vehicles. You will be potentially taking those rescuers out of service for weeks due to post mission self-monitoring protocols.
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The Inyo county notice was posted March 21.
https://www.inyocounty.us/sites/default/files/2020-03/INYO%20SAR%20PSA.pdf
Hope the person recovers, and screw the haters,what if it was YOUR family member .
I also hope they recover as I know all too well the pain of losing friends and family to both climbing accidents and disease. Ever since I began mountaineering, I accept that when I climb that it is a selfish endeavor. It is solely for my enjoyment, but I am also brutally aware that an accident would have an enormous impact on those closest to me. I don’t think people are “hating”. They are concerned not only for the climber, but also for the six SAR team members and their families. The intent of the recommendation by Inyo county to refrain from high risk activities such as this was to keep EVERYONE safe during this critical time.
Michael, I hope he recovers too but to answer your question, “what if this was YOUR family member,” and once on the mend, my family members would be asking “what the f*** were you thinking?”
Gavin Newsom released a list of allowed outdoor activities…and Rock Climbing is on that list. https://covid19.ca.gov/stay-home-except-for-essential-needs/#outdoor
The list you provided was posted by Newsom on May 8. The accident occurred the day before.
What does it benefit you to say such a lie? The list was released on April 30th.
It wasn’t a lie. The web page states it was updated May 8. It doesn’t discern if the list was updated or from a previous posting. If the list was published on April 30th, I apologize. However I believe the Inyo Sheriff recommendation still stands. High risk unnecessary activities put more people at risk than just the participants.
Gavin Newsome lost all credibility he earned at the beginning of this pandemic when he started releasing convicted criminals including rapists and child molesters from jail to only to then fine and arrest sunbathers, surfers and citizens using their public parks.
COMPLETE buffoonery and asinine, leadership doesn’t get any more *ss backwards than that.
Cool to see that you have an opinion…I hope that you now can consider yourself a difference maker.
Tinfoil,
Jails are run by counties so any releases there are Sheriff’s decision. Releases from state prisons were made by Judicial Council of the state court. State prison inmates released were within sixty days of the end of their sentence and placed on parole.
Most anyone arrested for violating stay at home were protestors that repeatedly ignored police orders to disperse. So you got some sources for all those law abiding citizens that got arrested?
XXXXXXXXX, (edit SWM)
you’re kidding, right? Even CNN and LA Times reported on those citations and arrests.
Glad it was a local not following the guidelines , otherwise it would just be another reason to bash us “low-landers” .
How appropriate of you in this situation of a critically injured person. How insensitive of you.
I think that it is highly inappropriate for these inconsiderate ‘climbers” to put the search and rescue personnel at risk, to pull their butts out of the fire when they’re told to abstain from dangerous activities, to keep the interactions to a minimum. How insensitive of THEM. Now they occupy bed space that might be needed for somebody that gets infected with this virus, by no fault of their own .
Seems odd that these people are climbing and not staying home due to COVID