LA VERKIN — Emergency responders came to the aid of two adult women, a mother and daughter from LaVerkin who had been hiking in the area of the LaVerkin Canal Trail, when the mother fell 10-15 feet down a slope off an upper down to a lower trail just before noon Thursday.
The two women from LaVerkin were hiking an upper trail, Search and Rescue Commander Casey Lofthouse said, and the mother wanted to get to the lower trail. As she moved into a rough area of loose dirt trying to get to the lower trail, she slipped and fell down a sort of chute to the lower trail, separating her from her daughter by about 200 yards.
It was a south-facing slope with temperatures above 80 degrees at noon.
Medical responders were able to get GPS coordinates from the women’s phone call directing them fairly close to their location, Lofthouse said, but they didn’t know exactly where they were so Washington County Search and Rescue teams were called in.
About a dozen participated in the search from the county’s east ground unit, which responds to incidents on the east side of the county, and high angle unit which perform ropes rescues.
The teams began by searching the Pah Tempe area, Lofthouse said, and eventually found the women about 12:45 p.m. southeast of the LaVerkin Bridge.
“It took us about 30-40 minutes to find them,” he said, “at which point we were able to assess the needed equipment.”
One of the crew rappelled the daughter down to where the mother had fallen. They were then both guided down the rest of the incline by rope to the river banks and then continued across the Virgin River to the pipeline road that goes through the river. From there, Search and Rescue transported them one at a time on a 4-wheeler about 2 miles down canyon where the older woman’s husband picked them up after medical had checked them out.
Aside from a few contusions and an injured ankle, the woman was cleared by medical and no transport was required.
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Sure it wasn’t the hurricane canal trail
LaVerkin Bridge…Hurricane Canal…..
that’s terribal
Washington Co. is lucky to have such a dedicated group of rescue volunteers. Great work S&R.