Shropshire Star

Another Grand Canyon visitor dies in fall from edge

A 70-year-old woman fell over the South Rim.

Published
The Grand Canyon

Another visitor to the Grand Canyon National Park has died after falling 200ft over the edge.

A 70-year-old woman fell over the South Rim in the second over-the-edge death within the confines of the park this month, according to Grand Canyon officials.

The woman had been walking about 200ft to 300ft off a trail along the South Rim about a mile east of Mather Point.

Park rangers received a call just after 1pm local time that she needed help west of a popular overlook called Pipe Creek Vista.

“She fell before we could undertake a rescue,” said Grand Canyon spokesman John Quinley, adding that the circumstances of the call for help were unclear.

The Skywalk hangs over the Grand Canyon on the Hualapai Indian Reservation
The Skywalk hangs over the Grand Canyon on the Hualapai Indian Reservation (Ross D Franklin/AP)

Mr Quinley said the woman fell between Mather Point and the starting point for the South Kaibab Trail, two well-known and highly visited places at the park’s more popular South Rim.

The park’s helicopter and rescue team recovered the body.

The woman’s identity was being withheld until her family was notified.

The National Park Service and Coconino County Medical Examiner will investigate the death.

Three other deaths since March 26, two of which occurred outside the park, are still being investigated.

On April 3, a 67-year-old California man fell 400ft from the edge of the South Rim in Grand Canyon Village, near the Yavapai Geology Museum.

A tourist from Macau, China, fell on March 28. He was trying to take a photo at Grand Canyon West’s Eagle Point — close to the Skywalk on the Hualapai Reservation outside the park — when he stumbled and fell.

The body of a Japanese tourist was found on March 26 in a wooded area south of Grand Canyon Village, away from the rim.

Only one person — an Illinois man — fell to his death in the park in 2018 after he climbed over the railing at Mather Point and fell 500ft.

Grand Canyon West, on the Hualapai reservation, gets about a million visitors annually.

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