A 380-foot plunge off a Death Valley cliff kills man on canyoneer trek, rangers say

A 41-year-old man on a canyoneer trek in Death Valley died Saturday after plunging 380 feet while rappelling into Bottomless Pit Canyon, park officials say.

Matthew Yaussi of Glendale, California, and a companion had hiked 4,000 feet up a ridge before starting their descent into the informally named canyon south of Titus Canyon in the Grapevine Mountains, Death Valley National Park rangers wrote in a statement.

His companion had reached the bottom of a 380-foot cliff when Yaussi fell to his death at 8:30 p.m., rangers wrote. The other man activated an emergency beacon and a U.S. Navy helicopter from Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake carried him to safety.

A California Highway Patrol helicopter returned with Inyo County sheriff’s deputies on Sunday to pick up Yaussi’s body, rangers wrote.

Canyoneers follow a planned route through a canyon by “hiking, scrambling, sliding, stemming, chimneying and rappelling,” Outward Bound says.

“Imagine extreme hiking with a harness, a helmet and appropriate rope systems,” says the publication. “Canyoneering is the intimate exploration of forgotten Earth. It is poetry in movement.”

The outdoor pursuit also can involve problem-solving and swimming, says the National Park Service. A permit is required for all technical canyoneering expeditions.

The route pursued by Gaussi and his companion involves 19 rappels down cliffs or dry waterfalls, according to RopeWiki.com.

Rangers say the route was pioneered in 2012 but is not commonly done.

This story was originally published March 26, 2019 at 12:17 PM with the headline "A 380-foot plunge off a Death Valley cliff kills man on canyoneer trek, rangers say."