Skier rescued after 800-foot fall on Mount Superior

Photo: SLCSAR

LITTLE COTTONWOOD CANYON, Utah — A skier was rescued the morning of April 2, after falling an estimated 800 feet down the south face of Mount Superior in Little Cottonwood Canyon.

The man, who Fox 13 reported was visiting from out of town with two others, had removed his skis and was boot-packing up the mountain when he lost his footing and slid out of control. The fall occurred several hundred feet above a rocky waterfall, which had formed on the melting south slope. The man slid over the waterfall area to a snowfield below the fall, where he stopped a few hundred feet below. Salt Lake County Search and Rescue responded, lowering him down the mountain by sled and ropes before transporting him to the hospital.

“He was alert, with some lacerations and bruises — no obvious broken bones,” said Ryan Clerico, vice commander of Salt Lake County SAR told Fox 13. “His helmet saved his life.”

The helmet was badly damaged in the fall, Clerico added.

A LifeFlight helicopter assisted in hoisting one of the man’s companions off the mountain after he became uneasy about skiing down. The third skier was able to exit the area on his own.