CUSTER, S.D. – Custer Search and Rescue was paged out Tuesday for a report of a man with a broken ankle in Sunday Gulch in Custer State Park.
Rescue crews were able to locate the patient thanks to a 9-1-1 call made by a flight nurse from Black Hills Life Flight who happened to hiking the other direction when the accident occurred. The nurse was able to climb high enough to get a signal to make a 9-1-1 call and then returned to assist the patient until help could arrive.
Authorities say the man was hiking solo when he broke his ankle after slipping on rocks which were wet from a passing rain shower.
The man was located near one of the sets of stairs on the steepest and rockiest part of the trail below Sylvan Lake.
Rescue personnel placed the man in a litter and he was carried back up to Sylvan Lake where he was taken by ambulance to a hospital.