WEST JORDAN, Utah – The 2-211th General Support Aviation Battalion of the Utah National Guard hoisted a seriously injured 20-year-old man off the face of the Uintah Mountains late Wednesday.
The highly trained pilots and crew from the Guard were able to hover in the dark canyon and hoist the injured hiker onto the Black Hawk at approximately 11 p.m.
The injured hiker was located about a third of the way up the north face of the mountain, at the bottom of Anderson Pass at Henry Fork.
The patient was flown on the Black Hawk to a meadow being used as the landing zone where he was transferred onto a Life Flight helicopter for transportation to Intermountain Medical Center.
The Guard was assisting the Utah Department of Public Safety and Summit County Search and Rescue. The Department of Public Safety's helicopter was onsite, assisting on the ground, but its personnel weren't authorized to perform the very difficult night hoist.