ROCKERVILLE, S.D. – The Rockerville VFD, Keystone Ambulance, and Pennington County Search and Rescue responded to an injured hiker at Hippie Hole at 8:15pm Monday night.
A group of people had been at Hippie Hole and when they returned to their vehicles they got turned around, crossed the creek, and tried to climb up a rock scree on the south side of the creek, just below the parking lot on Foster Gulch. One hiker fell on the rocks and broke his wrist.
After getting the coordinates of the injured party, talking to friends of the injured who had made it to the parking lot, and hiking down to get a visual on the injured person, resources decided it would be easier to come in from Hwy 40, hike down to the patient, and bring him out that direction.
Crews hiked gear into the area and reached the patient around 9:50pm. The patient was placed in a stokes basket, as he wasn’t able to hike out on his own. A rope system was setup to get the patient up the rock scree to a location where he could be wheeled out.
The rescue was complete around 11:30pm and all resources cleared the area at midnight.
