A 33-year-old man suffered life-threatening injuries Tuesday after falling at least 100 feet from a ledge on Tom Dick and Harry Mountain in Clackamas County, plunging while he was reportedly filming a movie and holding a replica prop gun. Callers told dispatchers he was breathing but not moving and rolled another 15 to 20 feet down the slope before coming to rest on the mountain near Government Camp.
The sheriff's office said the man was filming near the ledge when he fell, and that he was holding the replica prop gun at the time, according to KATU. Several people called 911 to report the fall from the second peak of the mountain in Mt. Hood National Forest, near Government Camp, the station reported.
Bystanders Rush to Keep Him Stable
Two people managed to reach the injured man on the mountain terrain and began providing first aid, per the same account. They worked to keep him warm and calm while preventing him from rolling any farther down the mountainside, and they relayed updates on his condition to dispatchers as rescuers made their way to the scene.
The two people who reached him described the man as conscious but suffering major injuries. The station's report does not specify how long it took crews to reach the ledge, but it does detail the aerial response that followed once help arrived.
National Guard Helicopter Hoists Him to Safety
A helicopter arrived at the mountain and a paramedic deployed to help stabilize the man before medics placed him on a backboard and loaded him into a rescue basket. An Oregon Army National Guard helicopter crew then hoisted him off the mountainside and flew him to a hospital, the article notes.
The circumstances surrounding the fall remain under investigation, according to the sheriff's office. Tom Dick and Harry Mountain, a popular hiking destination in the Mt. Hood National Forest, is near Government Camp, according to Wikipedia.
