Climber crushed to death by falling rocks in grisly accident, Utah officials say

A 25-year-old rock climber died Sunday afternoon when he grabbed a loose rock while scaling Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah officials said.

Mason Boos of Salt Lake City fell from the canyon wall when a rock near the Gate Buttress came loose in his hand around 1:15 p.m., KTVX reported.

“He fell about 20 to 30 feet, and rocks fell on him,” Sgt. Melody Cutler of the Salt Lake City Unified Police Department told the Gephardt Daily. He died at the scene. “It was a combination of both.”

“It is kind of hard to wrap your brain around,” Sgt. Ed Twohill told KSTU. “Kind of looking for ‘What could I have done better,’ who to blame, and there’s just nothing. They did everything right and it just broke.”

This story was originally published October 11, 2021 at 7:40 AM with the headline "Climber crushed to death by falling rocks in grisly accident, Utah officials say."