40-year-old climber gets impaled while rappelling down mountain, UT officials say

A climber was taken to the hospital after getting impaled while rappelling down a mountain, Utah officials said.

On Sunday, June 8, the 40-year-old man was rappelling in the Three Falls area near Alpine when he was impaled by a stick, according to a Facebook post from the Utah County Sheriff’s Office.

The man was lowering himself “into brush and a branch or stick went through his upper thigh,” officials told Gephardt Daily.

He was hoisted and airlifted by Intermountain Life Flight to a hospital for his treatment, officials said.

Sgt. Raymond Ormond with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office doesn’t think the man — who was in serious but stable condition — fell. Instead, the climber “rappelled onto the stick,” he told Gephardt Daily.

Alpine is about a 30-mile drive southeast from Salt Lake City.