A 70-year-old woman fell to her death in the Grand Canyon National Park, the park said in a news release.
Park rangers responded to a call of a person needing help at rocky point west of Pipe Creek Vista on Tuesday, April 23, the park said. But before the rescue operation began, the woman fell.
Her body was later recovered by the park's helicopter and rescue team of about 15 people, the release said.
He was part of a tour group visiting the Eagle Point observation area at Grand Canyon West and was apparently taking a selfie, according to David Leibowitz, a spokesman for Eagle Point.
The first death was not the result of a fall, according to a park spokeswoman. In that case, the victim was a foreign national whose body was found on March 26 in a forested area south of the South Rim Village area of the park.
Falls at Grand Canyon
Authors Tom Myers and Michael Ghiglieri said that as of 2012, about 685 people had died from falling into the Grand Canyon.Ghiglieri noted that the 1980s actually saw more deaths than recent years but there has been a shift in what kills people.
"This is despite everything the park has tried to do via educational signs and via preventative search and rescue work, both of which are pretty good. There were also proportionally more people dying from falls within the canyon (as opposed to from the rims)."
Of the people that fall over the edge, most are young males, he said.
Other causes of death include natural causes, medical problems, suicides, heat, drowning, and traffic crashes.
The blog recommends people stick to paved paths on the rim, watch children closely both at the rim and on trails, and be aware of the possibility of falling at all times.