Youth falls into canyon, escapes serious injury
By Cindy Yurth
Tséyi' Bureau
CANYON DE CHELLY NATIONAL PARK, Ariz., June 30, 2009
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(Times photo - Cindy Yurth)
Rescuers tend to an injured Chinle teenager (in green shirt) after pulling him up by ropes from a ledge onto which he had fallen about 40 feet down the canyon wall Monday. The 17-year-old boy, whose identity was not confirmed by Tuesday morning, escaped serious injury by landing on the ledge - the only interruption in the vertical canyon wall for at least several hundred feet in either direction.
A very lucky Chinle 17-year-old escaped serious injury Monday when he fell into Canyon de Chelly at the only spot within at least a half-mile where a ledge protruded from the sheer 200-foot vertical canyon wall.
Navajo Nation Police and a relative at the scene declined to give the boy's name, and a police report of the incident was not available Tuesday morning.
Police and a newly trained National Park Service rescue team arrived on the scene about 2:30 p.m. to find the youth trapped on a ledge about 40 feet down between Tunnel Overlook and Tsegi Overlook on the south rim of the canyon.
Vendors at Tunnel Overlook said they had seen the teen riding a motorcycle in the area that afternoon, but police found the motorbike parked on the rim and the boy appeared to have been on foot when he fell.
Rescuers rappelled down to the ledge and hauled the teen up with ropes. His injuries appeared to be fairly minor, as he limped to a waiting four-wheel-drive vehicle while leaning against a rescuer.
He was then driven to an ambulance parked at Tunnel Overlook and transported to the Chinle Comprehensive Healthcare Facility.
It was only the second rescue for the rescue team, and the first of a human. Earlier this summer they rescued some sheep and goats that had fallen off the rim onto a ledge.
Stories of near-miraculous survival after falls from the canyon rim abound among the Tséyiniis, according to artist Teddy Draper Jr. of Canyon del Muerto.
"My dad always said, 'The canyon is your mother; she won't hurt you,'" Draper said, "'but she will teach you a lesson.'"
