Helicopter Evacuation from the Canyon Country

The June 23 Mountaineers meeting will feature a talk by Reid Priedhorsky entitled “How to win 37 pieces of flair via helicopter evacuation from the canyon country, or, perhaps: How not to.”

On October 24, 2025, at 12:12 pm, while hiking near Cheesebox Canyon in southwest Utah, Reid fell somewhere between 15 and 40 feet, smashing his L3 vertebra and pelvis, among other injuries. This yielded a full-scale search-and-rescue response and helicopter evacuation to Grand Junction, Colorado, then, the following morning, eight hours of surgery by two separate teams to realign bone fragments and install 37 metal implants. He is now on track for a full recovery, with the help of family, friends, and many, many strangers. Reid will tell the story of the accident, rescue, and recovery, as well as walk through an error analysis that will (with luck) help save others similar trouble.

Content warning: This talk is not gory but it is candid, and includes some medical imaging of his injuries that is pretty striking.

Reid grew up in Los Alamos, attended college and graduate school in Minnesota, and returned in 2011 to work at the lab. He is now HPC Architect working on software flexibility for supercomputers and leads an award-winning open source project, Charliecloud, that is a member of the Linux Foundation. He also readily dispenses career advice of dubious quality, a project that is not award-winning.

Reid has enjoyed uncountable overnight outdoor adventures (literally, he has lost track) since childhood. This would have been his 55th canyon trip. In addition to hiking and backpacking the canyon country, he also enjoys reading; bicycling; tinkering with things; welding; photography; rick-rolling; and hanging out with his one spouse, two children, and three cats.

We welcome all to this Mountaineers’ meeting on the regular fourth Tuesday of the month. The social hour, with cookies, begins at 6:45 PM and the program at 7:00 PM. The presentation will be in-person at Los Alamos Nature Center; the slides will be live-streamed on Zoom. Registration is required to Zoom and recommended for in-person – we would love to see your smiling face. Registration details will be posted once available.

Reid Priedhorsky, subject of and speaker for the June Mountaineers talk