CB search and rescue responds to another Judd Falls cliff incident

It’s been busy in the backcountry

By Mark Reaman

For the second time this summer, a person who fell off the cliffs near the top of Judd Falls had to be rescued by local volunteers and safety professionals.

Crested Butte Search-and-Rescue (CBSAR) team members, along with Crested Butte fire and EMS crews, responded to a call on July 26 at 8:18 p.m. about a 21-year-old male who fell off the cliffs at Judd Falls and was in the water at the bottom of the falls. According to CBSAR president Randy Felix, a firefighter/ paramedic was able to get down to the patient and check for injuries. “The patient had upper and lower extremity injuries as well as numerous lacerations,” he said. “While Crested Butte Fire Protection District medics tended to the patient, CBSAR members worked on the best access to the patient and then set up a rope system to get the litter basket down to the patient.”

Felix said the situation was dicey given the time of day. “The patient’s injuries were tended to as best they could in the dark at the bottom of the cliff in the river,” he noted. “The patient was loaded into the litter and raised back to the top. The lower and raise was in steep rocky terrain and was approximately 300 feet.”

The patient, visiting from Livingston, New Jersey, was transported by a CBFPD ambulance to the Gunnison Valley Hospital. The search and rescue operation took several hours and is the third major incident to occur in Gothic along with a similar rescue of a man who fell off the cliffs in a nearby spot and the attempted revival of a man who ultimately died of a massive heart attack in Gothic.

CBFPD fire and EMS chief Rob Weisbaum said cross training has been valuable. “Several of our members are also on CBSAR and our staff train on rope rescue so that they too can safely access a patient that is not so easily accessible,” he said. “This was a great example of one of our paramedics doing just that.

“I commend the efforts of our team and the collaborative response with the mountain rescue team,” he continued. “A couple hours prior to this, we sent a team to assist with initial attack on the Lowline Fire so we were reaching out to all our members for additional staffing in our district. Our team really stepped up that night and once again answered the call with professionalism and excellent care. I’m proud of them.”

Felix said CBSAR has had a busy summer with several calls to help locate people, and other incidents such as helping a woman who was bucked off her horse about a mile-and-a-half into the Oh Be Joyful Wilderness and had to be evacuated by the CBSAR team to a waiting ambulance. “We have had calls for overdue e-bikers, stuck jeepers up Pearl Pass, an evacuation of an injured person from a dirt bike accident on Cement Mountain Trail, assisted Western State in a search up Cottonwood Pass, a search for an overdue group in the area of the Deadman switchbacks, and evacuated two minors off of Cliff Creek trail. It’s been pretty busy for sure,” he said.

Weisbaum added that “oftentimes, one or two of our members will assist with the SAR mission. We have had numerous missions where there was a multiagency response to help patients get to definitive care as quickly as possible. It has indeed been a busy summer.”