Man falls to his death while canyoneering in Utah’s Zion National Park

A man fell to his death while he was canyoneering in Utah’s Zion National Park on Saturday, the National Park Service said in a release.

The man, 40, died after he accidentally fell near the exit of Heaps Canyon around 6 p.m., the park service said Sunday. He was not immediately identified.

The man was canyoneering with three other people when he fell 150 to 200 feet, the NPS said. The group had been following an approved itinerary through the area when he fell.

The Zion National Park Technical Search and Rescue Team and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office responded and gave emergency medical care to the man, the NPS said.

A Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter airlifted the man from the area of the fall to a helispot near Watchman Campground, where Hurricane Valley Fire and Rescue and Intermountain Life Flight gave additional aid, according to the service.

However, he was pronounced dead before he could be taken to a hospital.

“Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the family and friends during this unimaginably difficult time,” Jeff Bradybaugh, superintendent of the park, said in a statement.

Both the park and the sheriff’s office are investigating the death, the NPS said.

Two of the three other canyoneers were extracted safely from the canyon on Sunday morning, also by a DPS helicopter, according to the park service.

The third person, with the assistance of Zion’s search-and-rescue team, rappelled down the canyon and reached the ground safely at around 2 p.m. Sunday, the NPS said.

More than 50 rescuers were involved, the NPS said, including personnel from the Springdale Police Department, Hurricane Valley Fire and Rescue, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and Intermountain Life Flight.  

Saturday’s was not the first canyoneering death in Heaps Canyon, which the park service has described as “a strenuous, challenging, technical canyon with an approximate 3,000 foot descent” that “usually takes 12 to 20 hours to complete, consists of a number of rappels into cold water, and ends with a final 280 foot rappel to the Upper Emerald Pool area.”

In 2015, a 24-year-old man died after he fell while canyoneering there with three other people, according to the NPS.

A 31-year-old man also died in the canyon in 2021. He was found suspended by a rope about 260 feet above Upper Emerald Pools after he missed a small rock ledge where he was supposed to stop and re-anchor his rope before he rappelled the remaining distance to the ground.