ST. GEORGE — An injured 18-year-old woman had to be airlifted out of a slot canyon in Kane County near Mt. Carmel Junction and Orderville about halfway between Zion National Park and Kanab Wednesday morning.
A member of the Utah Department of Public Safety’s helicopter rescue team is hoisted down to help an injured hiker out of a slot canyon near the Mt. Carmel Junction, Orderville, Utah, July 19, 2022 | Video screenshot courtesy of Utah Department of Public Safety, St. George News
After the call went out before noon, first responders had to navigate difficult terrain to get to the injured hiker more than two miles from any roads or civilization.
“It was difficult. A lot of hiking and we had to lower personnel into the injured person,” Kane County Sherrif’s Lt. Alan Alldredge told St. George News.
The Kane County Search and Rescue Team, as well as Kane County Sherrif and Bureau of Land Management officers, traversed barren and steep land two miles from Mr. Carmel Junction and The Belly of the Dragon trailhead and five miles from the White Wave.
Map shows the approximate area where a hiker was rescued, Orderville, Utah, July 19, 2023 |Image by iStock/Getty Images Plus, photo courtesy of Google Maps, St. George News | Click to enlarge
Ultimately, it took the Utah Department of Public Safety’s helicopter rescue team to extract the hiker and airlift her to St. George Regional Hospital. The full video of the air rescue can be seen at the top of this article.
Alldridge said the woman was being treated for foot and ankle injuries.
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2023, all rights reserved.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chris Reed serves as a reporter for St. George News, where he has been honored with several awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for his work, including first-place accolades. He started his journalism career as a sports reporter and editor in Southern California where he once compared shoe sizes with Shaquille O'Neal and exchanged mix tapes with members of the Los Angeles Kings. After growing up in the San Fernando Valley learning karate skills from Mr. Miyagi and spending a decade in Las Vegas mostly avoiding the casinos, he came to St. George for love and married his soulmate, a lifetime Southern Utah resident. He is the proud father of two boys, his youngest a champion against both autism and Type 1 diabetes.
