Man, 40, falls to his death while canyoneering at Utah's Zion National Park

Officials at Utah's Zion National Park said Saturday that a man who was canyoneering with some friends fell to his death around 6pm. According to a press release issued by the park, the man,40, was near the exit of Heaps Canyon with three other friends when he fell between 150 and 200 feet.

After receiving proper notice of the fall, Zion National Park Technical Search and Rescue Team and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene and attempted to render aid to the man . He was later extracted by a Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter to a spot near Watchman Campground where he was given additional aid. However, he was pronounced dead before he was transported by air ambulance to a hospital.

“Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the family and friends during this unimaginably difficult time,” Jeff Bradybaugh, Zion National Park Superintendent, said in the statement. Park officials have yet to release the man's name as officials are still investigating the death. According to officials, the group had been following a pre-approved itinerary when the accident happened.

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According to the release, the entire hike had been plagued with problems. The next day, two of the three remaining canyoneers were extracted by a DPS helicopter while the third man was assisted by the Zion search and rescue team when he rappelled down the wall of the canyon and made it down safely around 2pm.

The news of the man's death comes almost a month after a California woman, who had been deemed missing after she had wandered away from her campsite, was found emaciated . Esmeralda Marie Pineda, who had gone missing while hiking with her friends on August 25, was spotted looking emaciated and severely dehydrated by Sgt. Dustin Moe when he was searching a nearby mountainous area with a side-by-side.

Prior to going missing, Pineda had told her friends that she wanted to return to Sacramento and the next morning, she was gone. “Her friends went searching for her during that day, and couldn’t find any signs whether she had made it out,” Moe of the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said. Three days after her disappearance, the sheriff’s office and the search and rescue team shared her missing person report on social media asking anyone with information about the whereabouts of Pineda to contact them.

Several police-led search and rescue teams began looking for her as soon as her friends reported that she was gone. Both officials and volunteers repelled in and out of the canyon in search of Pineda. The treacherous terrain of the area made the search effort very difficult.

After finding the young woman, Moe called in a helicopter to lift Pineda out of the canyon around 1:20pm. At the time, officials said that the extent of her injuries was not known at the time but they were amazed that she was able to survive in the wilderness for nearly 12 days.