Las Vegas fire crews rescue injured hiker in ‘white-out’ snowstorm

Fire crews precariously rescued an injured hiker Monday morning near Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, working for about four hours in snowy conditions to retrieve him from a 300-foot ledge.

Las Vegas Fire Department spokesman Tim Szymanski said the man was hiking “off the beaten path” when he fell about 10 feet and fractured his ankle, unable to hike back down to his car. His hiking group called for help around 10:15 a.m. and directed arriving crews to him.

But amid blustery snowfall, Szymanski called it a “major operation.”

“We initially weren’t too stressed, because his injuries weren’t life-threatening, but when the crews arrived, the snow was falling and it was a complete white-out,” he said. “That meant we couldn’t use helicopters to rescue, so the team had to do it all by foot.”

The rescue crew hiked up the roughly 300-foot slope where they treated the hiker’s injured ankle, packaged him up and strapped him into a stretcher-like basket. Szymanski said the “packaging” was to help prevent further injury had the basket slipped away.

Once strapped in, Szymanski said crews attached ropes to both ends of the basket and slowly started working their way down the slope using a pulley system.

The man was safely loaded into an ambulance and on the way to a local hospital by about 2:15 p.m.

Szymanski reminded hikers to dress properly, even for short expeditions, “because you never know what’s going to happen.”

“It’s so easy to slip and tweak your ankle like this, but if you end up needing a large-scale rescue like this one, and a storm picks up, you’re going to be stuck in that weather for hours while our crews work,” he said. “So be sure to dress for the worst possible scenario and make sure you’re prepared.”

Contact Alexis Ford at aford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0335. Follow @alexisdford on Twitter.