A 13-year-old boy from North Dakota has survived a 100-foot fall from a cliff at the Grand Canyon's north rim. Wyatt Kauffman slipped on Tuesday while visiting the Bright Angel Point trail with his mother, plunging nearly 30 metres before rescue crews extracted him.
Wyatt told Phoenix television station KPNX that he was moving out of the way for others to take a picture when he lost his grip on a rock and fell. He sustained nine broken vertebrae, a ruptured spleen, a collapsed lung, a concussion, a broken hand and a dislocated finger. He was airlifted to a Las Vegas hospital.
National Park Service search and rescue teams used a high-angle technical rope rescue to reach the boy and raise him safely to the rim. The operation took two hours. Wyatt was then flown to a paediatric trauma centre for further care.
His father, Brian Kauffman, expressed gratitude for the rescue efforts, saying: 'We're just lucky we're bringing our kid home in a car in the front seat instead of in a box.' Wyatt was discharged from hospital on Saturday and was expected to return home to Casselton, North Dakota, on Tuesday.
Park officials warned that the Bright Angel Point trail, though popular, is exposed, narrow and steep. They reminded visitors to keep at least six feet from the edge. The Grand Canyon's search and rescue teams respond to more than 300 calls annually, ranging from heat illness to falls.
