A canyoneer died in an accident at Zion National Park during the holiday weekend/Kurt Repanshek file
A Virginia man died in a canyoneering accident at Zion National Park when he missed a small rock ledge he tried to land on and wound up suspended high above the canyon floor and below the perch he needed to reach.
Two other canyoneers with Andrew Arvig, 31, of Chesapeake, Virginia, were stranded on the perch 280 feet above Upper Emerald Pools and were eventually rescued by the park's technical search and rescue team.
According to a park release Monday evening, the trio started their trip early Saturday morning and had been following their permitted itinerary through Heaps Canyon. They had difficulty negotiating the last few rappels in the canyon, which delayed their exit.
Arvig, who grew up in Hurricane, Utah, not far from the park and attended Dixie State University, was the first to exit Heaps Canyon. However, the park release said, he "rappelled past a small rock ledge where he needed to land and re-anchor his rope in order to then rappel the remaining distance to the ground. The other members of the group used their 'pull line' to rappel to the perch. Mr. Arvig was unable to ascend the 20 feet back to the perch."
Rangers began rescue operations early Sunday morning when the canyoneers on the perch contacted Washington County Dispatch by cell phone after several failed attempts to connect because of poor reception. Once they reached the scene, the rangers were able to lower Arvig 260 feet to the ground; he was later pronounced dead by a doctor.
The rangers helped the other two canyoneers rappel safely to the ground.
The park’s response involved more than 30 rescuers, including a technical rescue team, a helicopter dispatched from Grand Canyon National Park, and a Life Flight helicopter and crew from St. George, Utah.
The Upper and Middle Emerald Pools trails, which had been closed due to rescue operations, have reopened.
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