Two rock climbers were airlifted to safety Sunday morning (July 23) after injuries to one forced them to stay overnight on a Kananaskis Country mountain ledge.
The two climbers, a male and female, began descending Little-Middle Sister of the Three Sisters peaks as the skies dimmed Saturday evening.
The experienced duo decided to use a rock horn as an anchor – a natural feature in the rock face – but the anchor collapsed during the woman’s rappel.
She tumbled 10 metres down an unforgiving rocky slope before stopping.
Suffering injuries to her head and torso, she was still mobile, but the well-prepared pair elected to remain overnight and evaluate their condition the following day instead of risking a night time self-rescue.
The next morning, however, the climbers surveyed their situation and threw in the towel.
Just after 5 a.m., Kananaskis Country Public Safety specialists (KCPS) were called to rescue them at the Three Sisters peak, near Canmore.
“They wanted, to the best of their ability, complete a self-rescue; just recognizing the need to only call for emergency services when it’s a true emergency,” said Jeremy Mackenzie, KCPS specialist.
“Once they had a good evaluation of the situation, they thought it was better to request assistance.”
In a Facebook post, KCPS wrote that while the duo did a number of things correctly, the cause of the accident was not properly assessing the integrity of the anchor.
In other rescue news last week, KCPS performed seven ground evacuations; four sling rescues, and another two heli-responses – which is a “pretty normal week” in July.
