News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
A rock climber was hanging between a rock and a hard spot for hours Saturday night. - Scott Hunter photos
A spotlight from a Coulee Dam patrol car illuminates the area around the stuck rock climber.
A light from above adds to the spotlight from far below as the climber nears the top of the cliff.
It all ended well, with a young rock climber apparently still healthy after hanging for hours in a harness off a cliff at Northrup Canyon Saturday night, unable to go up or down.
The canyon, an offshoot of the Upper Grand Coulee faces Steamboat Rock of highway 155 cutting into the coulee wall.
The terrain features "steep cliffs, massive boulders, thick brush and a small crevice that would be difficult to bring equipment through," noted Grand Coulee Police Officer Kline, who was first on the scene.
The climb was in an "equestrian area" on a cliff jutting a couple hundred feet from the ground at its base.
A family member had called in the emergency at 7:10 p.m. after the climber started losing feeling in his legs after becoming stuck and hanging for an hour about halfway up the face of the cliff.
Kline reached the bottom of the cliff and could talk with the climber, who was not named but appeared to be in his late teens. The officer reported the climber had wanted to rappel down but needed another rope, and the cliff face, itself, made it complicated.
Emergency medical technicians could not get to Kline's location at the bottom of the cliff because of the rough terrain, and because darkness had set in. The rescuers decided the best option would be to "pull the patient up" to the top of the cliff, which is more easily accessed from another route.
Coulee Dam Officer Watkins arrived and shone a patrol car spotlight on the climber's position. Officers took him water and advised him to interchange the pressure on his legs to prevent a blood clot.
From the top, rescuers were able to pull the young man up fairly quickly after getting another rope on him, about three hours after the initial call came for help came in.
The climber and an older man with him declined to comment.
The canyon is on Washington State Parks land.
Along with police, agencies responding included park rangers, Grand Coulee and Electric City Volunteer Fire Departments, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and Grant County Fire District 5 from Moses Lake.
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