Woman critically injured in fall last week at Wallace Falls park

A woman was critically injured from a fall in Wallace Falls State Park last Monday.

The 38-year-old landed on a ledge near Wallace Falls, according to a Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office news release. She had been canyoneering with a group at the time. The woman had been braking her climbing rope when she lost control, and she landed on a ledge near the falls around 4 p.m. on Aug. 21

“Canyoneering is an outdoor activity that combines route finding, rappelling, problem solving, swimming, and hiking,” according to the National Park Service.

Snohomish County Fire District 26 Assistant Chief Ernie Walters said it took about six hours to get the woman out. She had fallen 30 feet in a location that was hard for responders to reach, he said.

“It (the sport) is not common — it seems like more people are starting to get into it,” he said. “It is not really recommended for them to do because it is an extremely dangerous spot there. If they do get hurt, it is extremely hard for us to get to them and get them out of there.”

Agencies, including the sheriff’s Search and Rescue Unit, Washington State Parks and the Snohomish County Volunteer Search and Rescue, also sent crewmembers out after an emergency beacon was activated within the park, according to the news release.

Responders were able to reach the woman on foot, Walters said, but were unable to remove her from the site.

The sheriff’s office SnoHAWK10 dropped off a medic. The same helicopter hoisted the woman out and flew her to a school in Gold Bar, where she transferred into an AirLift Northwest helicopter, and taken to the Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, according to the news release.