100 Foot Fall, Broken Back, No Help: Surviving the Arizona Desert | E220

On May 20, 2016, ICU nurse Amber Kornhorst set out on a solo late-afternoon hike near Cane Beds, Arizona, and climbed a deceptively "sticky" sandstone wall she couldn't safely descend. With no cell service and no way out, she fell about 100 feet into a narrow rock "dungeon," suffering three spinal fractures, a crushed pelvis, head and facial injuries, severe dehydration, and hypothermia — and typed goodbye messages to her family on her phone. Refusing to give up, she crawled and climbed to a more visible ledge and blew her whistle three blasts every half hour until search-and-rescue teams and a helicopter located her nearly 24 hours later, executing a technical rope raise and hover-load evacuation to a Utah hospital. Her story drives home survival essentials: always tell someone your plan, never hike alone, start early, carry extra water and a whistle, consider a satellite communicator, and never climb anything you can't safely descend.

00:46 Show Intro And Setup

01:40 Amber Hits The Trail

03:02 Climbing The Sandstone Wave

04:10 No Way Down Desert Trap

05:32 The Hundred Foot Fall

06:20 Shock And Goodbye Texts

08:27 Painful Climb And Whistle

11:03 Search Effort Mobilizes

12:41 Helicopter Spots Her

14:16 Technical Rope Rescue

16:10 Hover Pickup Extraction

17:02 Helicopter Evacuation

17:43 Hospital Recovery Journey

19:06 Why She Survived

19:43 Whistle and Visibility

21:55 Search Mobilized Fast

22:50 Wilderness Safety Takeaways

25:03 Desert Hiking Mistakes

27:08 Survival Mindset Lessons

29:47 Final Wrap and Credits

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Primary/First-Person Account

• Kohnhorst, Amber. "Surviving Alone After a 100-Foot Fall in the Arizona Wilderness." Backpacker Magazine, February 28, 2017. https://www.backpacker.com/survival/surviving-a-100-foot-fall-in-arizona/

News Coverage

• "Rochester Woman Survives 100-Foot Tumble On Hike In Arizona." WCCO/CBS Minnesota, May 24, 2016. https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2016/05/24/rochester-woman-100-foot-fall-arizona
• "Hiker Recovering After Northwest Arizona Fall." KTNV, May 25, 2016. https://www.ktnv.com/news/hiker-rescued-in-rural-northwest-arizona
• "Hiker Who Fell Is Mending at Home." Post Bulletin, 2016. https://www.postbulletin.com/newsmd/hiker-who-fell-is-mending-at-home
• "The 100-Foot Fall. The Long Climb Back." Post Bulletin. https://www.postbulletin.com/news/the-100-foot-fall-the-long-climb-back

Institutional Coverage

• "Nurse Becomes Patient After Surviving 100-Foot Fall While Hiking." Mayo Clinic In the Loop, June 9, 2016. https://intheloop.mayoclinic.org/2016/06/09/nurse-becomes-patient-after-surviving-100-foot-fall-while-hiking/
• "Amber Kohnhorst's Trip to the Sanctuary." Best Friends Animal Society. https://bestfriends.org/stories/features/mayo-clinic-nurse-who-survived-100-foot-fall-returns-best-friends

Background

• "Cane Beds, Arizona." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cane_Beds,_Arizona

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