NORTHERN NEW MEXICO
Kirtland Air Force Base deploys Black Hawk to help rescue Taos County teen who fell in Rio Grande Gorge
Sheriff: 'They were unprepared, and fortunately, Taos County had the resources available to be able to successfully save their lives'
TAOS — The Taos County Sheriff’s Office coordinated a multiagency rescue effort Monday evening for two local teenagers who became stranded in the Rio Grande Gorge after one of them suffered serious injuries in a fall near the river’s edge.
Sheriff Steve Miera said he and his deputies responded to a 911 call from a third teen, who had hiked out of the several-hundred foot canyon to report that his friend had fallen roughly 15 feet and couldn’t move. The second teen, he said, stayed behind to help the friend who had fallen.
The Taos County teens, males ages 18, 16, and 17, were wearing light windbreaker jackets and lacked cold weather gear, raising concerns among first responders that the two teens still below could be subject to hypothermia.
While first responders have performed rescues from the river in the past, Miera said the teen who called for help indicated his friend may have suffered pelvic and spinal injuries, requiring a helicopter to extract him safely from the Gorge.
Deputies deployed a drone with night vision and thermal capabilities, in conjunction with a Classic Air Medical helicopter, to locate the two teens in the canyon roughly a mile south of the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, upriver of a set of treacherous Class 3 rapids known locally as the “Box.”
“Based on the information that we received, the injured male that was at the bottom had suffered a pelvic injury, and potentially more than that,” Miera said. “So launching a raft was an absolute last, last resort.”
The sheriff’s office, in coordination with Taos Central Dispatch, asked for assistance from Kirtland U.S. Air Force Base, whose teams deployed a Black Hawk helicopter and flew to the Gorge, airlifting the two teens to the canyon rim, roughly 600 feet above.
The teen who fell was transported by ambulance to Holy Cross Medical Center, and was then airlifted to the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque.
Taos Fire Department, Taos County Fire and Rescue and Taos Search and Rescue also assisted in the rescue effort, which concluded around 2 a.m. Tuesday, Miera said.
“I would say this was a situation where some young individuals bit off more than they could chew,” the sheriff said. “They were unprepared, and fortunately, Taos County had the resources available to be able to successfully save their lives.”
The Gorge, a central feature of the federally designated Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, has been the site of numerous accidents and rescues over the years, including a California man who became stranded while hiking to hot springs there this fall.
The Rio Grande Gorge Bridge has also become the subject of an $8 million NMDOT project to build higher railings and replace sidewalks with lightweight materials in response to a spike in suicides there last year. The project is set to begin this summer.
John Miller is the Albuquerque Journal’s northern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at jmiller@abqjournal.com.
