Yosemite National Park (CA)
Injured Hiker Extricated From Top Of Lower Yosemite Fall


On the afternoon of Saturday, April 27th, the park communication center received a transfer call from an injured hiker from the California Highway Patrol. Fernando Celis reported that he was at the base of a waterfall in between some boulders and that he was badly injured and couldn’t walk. Celis couldn’t identify his location, say how he’d become injured, or advise the location of the group he was with. Rangers were dispatched to the bases of Lower Yosemite, Bridalveil, Nevada and Cascade Falls to search for Celis and other rangers were placed on standby to search other park waterfalls if necessary. Rangers found Celis’ hiking group within about an hour and learned that they’d hiked the Upper Yosemite Fall Trail and that Celis had become separated from the group along the trail between the bottom of Upper Yosemite Fall and top of Lower Yosemite Fall. Hasty teams were sent up the Upper Yosemite Fall Trail and to Sunnyside Bench (on the opposite side of the river) to search for Celis. A helicopter was ordered as a search platform and for a possible hoist mission. California Highway Patrol helicopter H-20 from Auburn, California, arrived around 5 p.m. and began an air reconnaissance of the area. The crew spotted Celis on a ledge near the top of Lower Yosemite Fall after about an hour and successively inserted rangers Aaron Smith and David Pope by hoist to the ledge. The rangers packaged Celis in a KED and Stokes litter. He was hoisted from the ledge, transferred to a medical helicopter at Ahwahnee Meadow, and flown to Doctor's Medical Center in Modesto. H-20 then hoisted the rangers from the ledge. Yosemite Valley District Ranger Jack Hoeflich served as the incident commander.