A day of climbing on Mummy Mountain turned into a marathon rescue on Monday when a climber was seriously injured high on the face and had to be hauled off a steep route in a complex, seven-hour operation that pulled in LVMPD air support and volunteer lead-climb teams. Crews rappelled into the route, built a multi-station lowering system and shifted the climber several hundred feet down to the base before a helicopter ferried everyone to a nearby helipad. The climber was strapped into a titanium rescue litter for the descent and later taken by ground ambulance to a local hospital for evaluation. Officials said the climber’s helmet was destroyed in the fall but likely kept a bad head injury from becoming far worse.
Rescue details from LVMPD
According to LVMPD, rescuers found the injured climber at the top of the first pitch, roughly 600 feet above the ground. Air3 inserted four SAR officers and a Lead Climb volunteer several hundred feet above the victim to start the extraction. Those teams rappelled down to the patient, built the lowering system and used three separate lowering stations to bring the climber to the base of the route. LVMPD noted that Air3 then returned to lift out the victim and all rescue personnel after they were moved to the BLM helipad.
Why Mummy Mountain is hazardous
Mummy Mountain rises in the Spring Mountains near Mt. Charleston, with high alpine limestone walls and technical upper pitches that demand precise route-finding and careful rope work. As OutdoorProject describes it, the mountain’s approaches and upper cliffs can be loose and remote, which makes both helicopter and ground rescues harder to pull off. That steep, exposed terrain helps explain why rescuers relied on a multi-station lowering system instead of a straightforward hoist from above.
How rescuers worked for hours to lower the patient
Technical rescue teams commonly lean on multi-station lowering systems and purpose-built litters to move injured climbers through steep, exposed terrain while a rescuer stays directly with the patient, as explained in the National Park Service’s technical rescue handbook. Lightweight titanium litters cut down on weight and can be hoisted or rigged for long, complex evacuations.
In this incident, LVMPD said rescuers secured the patient in a titanium litter and lowered them several hundred feet through three stations before moving the climber to the BLM helipad. From there, the patient was transferred to a ground ambulance and taken to a local hospital. Metro logged the call under event number 260200110433 and reported that the entire operation lasted about seven hours.
What officials say
Metro released the operational timeline in its social media post but did not provide the climber’s current condition or any identifying details. Friends and family have not issued public statements, and officials asked anyone with additional information about the incident to contact Metro’s Search and Rescue unit through the department’s normal public channels.
