Injuries prompt cliff diving ban at Curecanti

Several recent injuries have prompted the National Park Service to ban cliff jumping and cliff diving at Curecanti National Recreation Area, including Blue Mesa Reservoir.

“We’ve had a couple of injuries, one fairly serious,” Linda Alick, chief ranger at Curecanti NRA and Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, told the Daily Press in a phone interview yesterday. One injury came close to being a fatality, according to Alick. “The only reason the individual survived was he was wearing a life jacket and his friends retrieved him,” she said. “That saved his life.”

“We’ve had two (injuries) we know of this year,” Alick said. There were probably several more, though. “Often we don’t hear about them because they transport themselves, or wake up the next morning with their backs hurting from compression fractures.”

One person was hospitalized with a punctured lung and a concussion, she said. The other was treated and released.

The superintendent for Curecanti NRA and Black Canyon National Park has closed the area to cliff jumping and cliff diving, Alick said. The NPS has posted signs prohibiting these activities within the Curecanti area, including Blue Mesa. The restriction prohibits diving or jumping off of rock cliffs, ledges, bridges or manmade structures with a height of 15 or more feet from the water’s surface. However, the park service discourages all cliff jumping or diving regardless of height.

Sustained high water levels this summer, fluctuating water levels and submerged hazards are of particular concern. However, cliff diving is always potentially dangerous, Alick said. Divers jumping off a 40-foot cliff hit the water’s surface at about 35 miles per hour, she said. That speed is enough to cause spinal fractures, concussions and head injuries.

“The area has become a pretty popular site, especially on weekends, with young kids,” Alick said. She said the crowds are mostly 18 to 25 year olds. “It looks like fun to them,” she said. “They’re fearless, daredevils.”

But now the new signs are up, and the park service has begun enforcing the ban and educating the public.

 “This is a dangerous activity,” Alick said. “We don’t want to wait until we have a fatality.”