Man seriously injured after falling 70 feet in Colorado's Eldorado Canyon State Park
A man is fighting for his life after falling 70 feet in a popular climbing canyon in Boulder County, officials said.
It happened Sunday afternoon in Eldorado Canyon State Park, the Boulder County Sheriff's Office said in a statement Sunday night. The 69-year-old man and his climbing partner were on the Chockstone climbing route.
Officials say the man was unconscious after falling, and after bystanders and first responders did CPR, he regained a pulse. Rescuers still had to treat him at the scene and then secure him into a litter before lowering him down steep and loose terrain; a two-hour process. He was then taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital, where he remains, officials said.
Mountain View Fire Rescue, one of the several agencies that responded, said on Monday morning that the man was taken to the hospital with "life-threatening" injuries, but the agency didn't have an update on his condition as of Monday.
The rescue group provided an update on Nov. 9, stating the climber's rope was cut as it scraped against a protruding rock.
The Chockstone climbing route is on a 165-foot-tall, nearly 90-degree rock face at the upper end of the West Ridge of the canyon.