A California man who was canoeing in Death Valley National Park died after slipping on an unstable rock and falling nearly 30 meters, officials said on Monday.
Justin Ibershoff, 38, of Los Angeles, was descending a steep, rocky slope in Deimos Canyon with a group of six experienced canyonists when he fell, the National Park Service said in a press release.
Stepping on the unstable slope caused a rock slide that pushed him apart from two other people in his group and on the edge of a 35-meter dry fall, the park service said.
The group alerted a search and rescue team using an emergency beacon. After arriving in Ibershoff a few hours later, the team determined that he was dead, the service said.
Canyoning – which combines hiking and abseiling in gorges – has grown in popularity in recent years in the park, where there are 200 established routes, the park service said.
Another canyonist, Matthew Yaussi, 41, died in Death Valley last year while abseiling on a 380-foot cliff.
Park service said on Monday that conditions remained unstable in the Deimos Canyon area, where Ibershoff fell.
Death Valley is about two hours northwest of Las Vegas, in California’s Mojave Desert.