ST. GEORGE — Friday proved to be a busy day for Washington County Search and Rescue with four separate incidents ranging from a mountain biker that had to be airlifted from a trail near Virgin to hikers needing rescue at the Island in the Sky at Snow Canyon State Park.
on Guacamole Trail to the hospital Saturday, Washington County, Utah, April 2, 2017 | Photo courtesy of Darrell Cashin, St. George News
“It’s been a very busy Friday,” said Jason Bradley, emergency operations manager for Washington County Search and Rescue. “Hopefully, it’s not an indication of the weekend ahead.”
The most serious incident involved a female mountain biker who fell four feet off the Guacamole Trail near Virgin and lacerated her left knee around 4 p.m. on Friday, causing profuse bleeding. Bradley didn’t know what caused the laceration but it was enough to require the dispatch of Intermountain Life Flight.
“They got their leg cut up bad enough that they needed a tourniquet. (Life Flight) were called out because of that bleeding situation,” Bradley said of the hiker, who was transported by helicopter to St. George Regional Hospital. “We had a deputy and search and rescue members going up there, but the helicopter beat them.”
Later in the day, a pair of hikers found themselves stuck at the Island of the Sky in Snow Canyon State Park just after 7 p.m., but Bradley said Search and Rescue was able to make quick work and get the hikers out with several recent experiences with hikers stuck on the popular sandstone butte.
“They weren’t too far up. Our guys were able to get to that,” Bradley said. “They’ve gotten really good with rescues up there.”
Earlier Friday, in one of the area’s other state parks of Sand Hollow, Search and Rescue was dispatched to come to the aid after the crash of an all-terrain vehicle. Bradley said ATV crashes in Sand Hollow are their “standard” on the weekend and the driver ended up being able to transport themselves for treatment.
The fourth rescue earlier Friday was helping a person in a diabetic daze who got lost on the Utah-Arizona border.
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