Family Hike Near Pritchett Arch Ends in Fatal Canyon Fall, Rescue

Near Pritchett Arch in Pritchett Canyon west of Moab, a spring-break family hike turned into a steep slickrock rescue after an adult fell an estimated 70 to 80 feet and then tumbled about 50 more feet down the slope. The terrain there can look forgiving right up until it isn’t: Grand County rescuers described Moab-area cliff edges as deceptive, the kind that slope gently before dropping hard and vertical.

The family of four, two parents and two children, had reached the area on two motorcycles and a side-by-side. They split into pairs on the hike, with one parent and one child ahead and the other parent and child behind. No one saw the fall itself. One of the children heard screaming and ran to alert the other parent, who used the satellite function on an iPhone to text 911 and call for help.

Grand County Search and Rescue and Grand County EMS responded, and a medical helicopter was requested after rescuers reported open fractures and possible internal injuries. Intermountain Health’s Moab helicopter, Intermountain-20, reached the scene in about five minutes and landed within about 150 yards of the patient. Crews then used the aircraft to ferry rescuers, the aeromedical crew, oxygen and rope gear into the canyon.

The patient had come to rest in a sloping sandstone gully above an 8- to 10-foot dry fall, which forced rescuers to drill anchor bolts into rock and build a lowering system with ropes, webbing, carabiners and descent devices. They lowered the critically injured adult to the wash floor, carried the patient to the landing zone and loaded the patient into the helicopter for transport to a trauma center. The full operation took just under three hours.

The setting is part of what makes Moab scrambles so easy to underestimate. The site is only about five miles from Moab as the crow flies, yet vehicle access can take up to three hours one way, a reminder that proximity on a map means little once a canyon route tilts into slickrock, gullies and hidden drops. For anyone eyeing a similar outing near Pritchett Arch or Cummings Arch, the lesson is plain: the terrain can turn abruptly, and a family hike can become a technical rescue before anyone has time to react.