Authorities said it took emergency crews two hours to rescue Wyatt Kauffman after he slipped on a cliff Tuesday and plunged the nearly 100 feet (30 meters) at the Bright Angel Point trail.
The teenager was airlifted to a Las Vegas hospital for treatment of nine broken vertebrae plus a ruptured spleen, a collapsed lung, a concussion and a broken hand and dislocated finger.
"It wasn't that good of a grip. It was kind of pushing me back. I lost my grip and started to fall back," he added."I just remember somewhat waking up and being in the back of an ambulance and a helicopter and getting on a plane and getting here" to the hospital, said Kauffman, who lives in Casselton, North Dakota.A National Park Service search and rescue team set up a rope rescue down to the steep and narrow trail and raised the teen safely to the rim.
He said Wyatt and his mother were on a trip to visit national parks when the Grand Canyon fall occurred.
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