Harrowing rescue on steep canyon walls off Tunnel Drive

-
I drove to the west end of Canon City this morning to do some birding but when I got there I saw that a rescue was starting on the steep canyon walls above Tunnel Drive on the other side of the river from where I was located. The top photo gives a good view of what I could see without the use of optics--note the white arrows pointing that are pointing at the young woman who was the subject of the rescue. Though I was several hundred yards away I had close up views through my 45X spotting scope lens. And since I photograph birds, flowers, mountains, just much of what I observe I started photographing this rescue by our local Canon City Fire District.
I was fearful on several occasions as I watched the firemen climb without safety ropes. Once the lead fireman in the red helmet got to her he started cutting a large cactus that is shown in front of her in the top pic so she could late come down past it. Then other firemen climbed to the top then threw a safety rope down to be attached to the victim. All of that took more than an hour.

I am not posting photos that show the young woman's face clearly--she climbed without proper gear and I am sure had a frightful as well as embarrassing time. I will share all the photos with the Fire Department if they are interested in using them for their action review.
The rest of the photos here show the rest of the rescue as the lead fireman got the victim down and eventually put in a rescue basket for the trip down.
Again look for the white arrows pointing to the fireman who are carrying the victim in the rescue basket down this steep canyon.
In the bottom pic they are almost down to the trail/service road that goes up Tunnel Drive. The firemen with the victim in the rescue sled are to the right of the white arrows. Further to the right are two more Fire Department members waiting for them to get down. Glad this was successful. The firefighters did a wonderful job of rescuing this young woman. SeEtta

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spotted Sandpiper Chicks, 3 more days older

-
Image
Two days when I went to check on the Spotted Sandpiper family at Florence River Park I thought they had likely perished--there were two men engaged in gold panning right where the parent sandpiper had been and they had dug some of the sand from the bank where I last saw the sandpiper chicks. Arggh, I was afraid that all this activity, plus a large off leash dog with these people, would have scared the parent away and even if the chicks were successful in hiding in the vegetation they would not survive without a parent at their young age. What a surprise when I returned that evening for one last check to be accosted by the parent sandpiper calling loudly and challenging me by walking right towards me (and my dog). It took awhile for the parent to settle down and for one of the chicks to walk in some grass where I could spot it--the parent had moved the chicks about 150 from the river into an area with a lot of vegetation. I returned day before yesterday and refound the parent and
Read more

Recently fledged Common Raven

-
Image
At the end of March this year I spotted a Common Raven going into a crevice above a rock face of a local cliff area called Castle Rock (as part of it looks sort of like a castle). I started watching this area and observed a pair of Common Ravens spending time around this location. On March 27 I spotted one of the ravens inside the crevice which now had what looked like nesting material in it--the photograph of that is the second pic here. I continued off and on to check this apparent crevice nest. At the end of May I saw what appeared to be a nestling inside the crevice. I continued birding in the riparian forest across the Arkansas River from this cliff area. When I was about a quarter mile away I heard a lot of raven racket and walked to a spot where I could see the cliff area through my binoculars. I could see a lot of raven action with the parent birds calling loudly so I expected that the nestling may have fledged or they were trying to get it to fledge. I went back t
Read more

Band-tailed Pigeons, the mountain pigeons

-
Image
I spotted a small flock of about 9 or 10 of these Band-tailed Pigeons in a tiny unincorporated town called Greenwood which is south of Canon City about 20 miles (via winged flight). The homes in Greenwood are right up against the San Isabel National Forest and forests are the habitat for these mountain pigeons. The white collar on the nape of this species can be seen in the pic above.  The broad pale gray terminal band on a darker upper tail (and below the light undertail coverts) is best seen in pic below.  SeEtta
Read more