A volunteer rescue team successfully aided a climber who was stranded for hours on a 6-inch ledge over 10,000ft off the ground in California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range. The unnamed climber had been scaling the Mendenhall couloir on Laurel mountain with a friend on Saturday.
The climber reportedly veered off the marked path, which the Mono county search and rescue team stated can be deadly. Rescuers noted that without intervention, a fatal fall was increasingly possible if the climber remained in place overnight.
Due to powerful winds, a helicopter hoist operation was not viable. The team instead proceeded on foot at night, using headlamps for light. A rescuer reached the climber from overhead and attached him to a secure rope system to prevent a fall. The operation concluded in the early hours of Sunday morning.