A hiker’s fall down a rocky mountainside in Eaton Canyon was caught on cellphone video, authorities said Thursday.

Video footage shows the 19-year-old woman losing her footing and screaming as she tumbles down the cliff, eventually catching herself on a tree. It then shows her being rescued and airlifted out of the area by helicopter.

When officials responded around 6:45 p.m. Wednesday they found the woman hanging on a tree limb just south of the canyon’s upper waterfalls, according to the Pasadena Fire Department.

She sustained heavy bruising to her leg and was transported by an L.A. County Fire Department helicopter to Huntington Memorial Hospital.


The upper falls are scheduled to close to the public Friday, a decision made by the U.S. Forest Service because of injuries and fatalities occurring over the last few years when people try to climb up them.

“In particular, hikers ignore warning signs and climb the canyon’s crumbling walls in search of the second waterfall, enticed by social media videos that encourage and challenge people to risk their own lives and those of emergency responders,” the forest service wrote in a release announcing the closure Wednesday.

In 2012 there were over 60 rescues in the upper falls area, and there have been five deaths since 2011, according to the forest service.

Access to the lower falls will remain open.


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