The U.S. Forest Service says a 31-year-old woman was rescued after falling about 1,500 feet down Mt. Shasta in Northern California, escaping the ordeal with no serious injuries despite a suspected fractured right ankle.
For hours, rangers couldn’t get to her the way they wanted. Cloud cover kept a helicopter from moving freely over Mt. Shasta, so they went in on foot—climbing toward a woman who had already tumbled roughly the length of five football fields down a steep, high-altitude route.
The U.S. Forest Service said the rescue took place over the weekend. It involved a 31-year-old woman who fell about 1,500 feet down the stratovolcano, landing from around 13,000 feet to about 11,500 feet before coming to rest on the mountain.
When she was found, the agency said in a social media post on Tuesday, she was “alert, in good spirits, and suffering from a suspected fractured right ankle along with additional injuries consistent with the significant fall.”
She was traveling with a group of three novice climbers ascending a steep, high-altitude route up Mt. Shasta on Sunday. Mt. Shasta rises to 14,179 feet and is the second-highest peak in the Cascade Range.
Because weather limited options in the air, rangers reached her and then began the difficult work of getting her to safety. According to the U.S. Forest Service, she was lowered down to Lake Helen.
That evening, at around 5:30 p.m., a California Highway Patrol helicopter transported the woman to Mercy Medical Center Mt. Shasta.
The Forest Service used the rescue to stress a lesson it says many people still need to hear: Mt. Shasta is a high-altitude mountaineering environment, not a hike. “Even experienced climbers can encounter rapidly changing weather, steep snow and ice, rockfall, and hazardous fall conditions,” the agency said.
In the end, the details of the climb—and the timing of the rescue—underscore why the mountain can turn unforgiving without warning: a fall from roughly 13,000 feet leaves little room for error, and even reaching a victim can depend on clouds clearing enough for help to arrive.
As the agency emphasized, the woman’s survival doesn’t change the risks inherent in climbing at those elevations. It does, however, show what can happen when rescuers adapt—walking to reach her, lowering her to Lake Helen, and then coordinating an airlift to bring her to medical care.
Mt. Shasta U.S. Forest Service rescue California Highway Patrol helicopter Mercy Medical Center Mt. Shasta high altitude climbing avalanche conditions fractured ankle
1500 feet?? how is that even real. lucky she wasn’t like… dead dead.
So they couldn’t fly because of cloud cover but then a CHP helicopter got her out later, right? Sounds like it just took longer. Also “no serious injuries” but fractured ankle… ok.
I feel like this is why I don’t trust mountains lol. If she was “traveling with a group of three novice climbers” then why are newbies going on the steep route at all? Like just hike normal if you wanna be safe. And 13,000 feet to 11,500?? that sounds like a plane crash almost.
Mt Shasta is basically like a volcano so I’m guessing the fall was from some kind of lava rock or the ground shifting or something. Rescue on foot while the helicopter waits sounds like bad planning to me. But hey she’s “alert” so I guess it worked. Still, people act like it’s some easy hike, and it’s not. Also Lake Helen?? where do they even get that rope setup from.