A 54-year-old man fell to his death earlier this month while canyoneering alone in California’s Death Valley National Park.
The National Park Service, which did not identify the man, said that he had been found on Dec. 3 following a search.
A campground host had reported there was a campsite with a tent in it – and no people – after the dates the site was paid for.
Park rangers left a note on the site and returned the next day to pick up the abandoned property.
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Upon their return, they located climbing gear and a package with a name and address in the tent.
The rangers remembered having seen a vehicle at Mosaic Canyon Trailhead late in the day when they finished carrying out a person with an injury just a couple of days earlier.
An asphalt trail leads through the smooth white polished marble walls in Mosaic Canyon, Death Valley National Park, California.
((Photo by: Sergio Pitamitz / VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images))
The vehicle was still there, so they ran the license plates and discovered that the vehicle was registered to the person addressed on the package in the tent.
The search and subsequent body recovery were conducted by National Park Service, Inyo County SAR, Inyo County Sheriff’s Office, Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake’s VX-31 rescue helicopter and California Highway Patrol’s H-82 helicopter.
The official cause of the man’s death will be determined by Inyo County Coroner’s Office.
Park rangers and search and rescue team members observed that the man’s rope was not long enough to reach the ground on a long rappel.
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A sign for California’s Death Valley National Park
((Photo by: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images))
He tied a piece of webbing to the end of the rope, but the Park Service said he appeared to have made a mistake when disconnecting his rappel device to pass the knot joining the rope and webbing.
Rangers estimate the man fell about 30 feet in the West Fork route in Mosaic Canyon.
The Park Service noted that the route is not commonly descended and that there are more than 100 known canyoneering routes in the park.
The first known canyoneering descent of the route was in 2012.
Canyoneering is typically done as a group activity, due to the inherent risks.
The sport involves descending canyons by a combination of hiking, downclimbing and rappelling.
In data, the Nation Park Service reported there had been more than 1.1 million annual visitors to Death Valley National Park recorded in 2021.
Death Valley National Park’s Mosaic Canyon
((Photo by: Sergio Pitamitz / VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images))
Previously this year, Death Valley National Park reported five separate fatalities of various causes.
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“We recommend that anyone going into the backcountry lets someone know their plans. The park doesn’t track the 1.7 million people that visit each year,” Abby Wines, park spokesperson and avid cannoneer, said. “This man was not reported overdue, and the search did not start in time to save his life. A satellite communication device also could have been a lifesaver.”
