VIDEO: A routine climbing trip with friends turned into an emergency rescue when Cody Boehm was struck by a microwave-sized boulder that broke multiple bones and left him wondering how he would get help.”I definitely knew my right side was broke,” Boehm said recently while recovering at Billings Clinic. “I was feeling like I wasn’t going to make it. There was a point there where I was like, this is bad.” Boehm was on the ground, while his friend was climbing above about 50 feet up.
His friend went to step on a ledge and dislodged the large rock, which then struck Boehm in the head before crashing into his body, breaking his collarbone and seven ribs while leaving a large laceration across his back.The accident happened Sunday afternoon at the Confluence Crag near the Lions Camp on the Lake Fork of Rock Creek near Red Lodge. The area complicated rescue efforts. One of his friends stayed with him to keep him awake and apply pressure to his wounds, while the other went to call for help.
“Where I was, kind of steep, lots of rock, really terrible terrain,” Boehm explained. Multiple agencies coordinated the complex rescue operation. Red Lodge Fire Rescue, search and rescue teams, and the Custer Gallatin National Forest Beartooth Ranger District worked together to extract Boehm from the forest, with sawyers clearing fallen timber blocking the evacuation route.
