LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Two hikers were rescued in separate incidents at Death Valley National Park.
The incidents occurred on Sunday after park rangers helped carry a woman with a broken leg out of Mosaic Canyon.
The woman’s companions stayed with her to support her. A bystander hiked out and called 911 to request assistance around 8 am.
Nine NPS employees and two American Conservation Experience interns carried the injured hiker to a private helicopter ambulance and flew her to a nearby hospital.
(Photo credit: NPS)
In another incident park, that same day rangers found a man who had been separated from his hiking club on Wildrose Peak Trail.
The hiking club was near the 9,064-foot snow-covered summit when the man in the group decided to remain behind due to head and body aches.
The group agreed upon a plan that he would wait for the group, then descend to the trailhead together.
However, the man got cold and decided to go down the trail to warm up. He lost the trail and then he went back uphill to the ridge before turning around and going back down the drainage. Wildrose Peak Trail is 8.4 miles round-trip, but the lost hiker walked 18 miles, according to his fitness watch.
The man had no food, inadequate warm clothing, did not feel well, and was over 60 years old, the news release stated.
Temperatures in the area were forecasted to drop below freezing overnight.
NPS notified California Highway Patrol and Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake of a potential request for a helicopter search, but the hiker was located before they were needed.
Two park rangers located the hiker by making loud sounds and guided him towards the road.
