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Woman holds onto tree root after falling off Multnomah Falls trail over cliff to avoid 300-foot drop

The woman slipped and fell 20-30 feet but held on by grabbing onto a tree root. Firefighters say bystanders lowered a small rope and held her while they arrived.
Credit: Corbett Fire
A rope can be seen as crews rescue a woman who slipped on a trail at Multnomah Falls on Dec. 27, 2021.

CORBETT, Ore. — A woman was rescued after falling from a trail at Multnomah Falls Monday afternoon and holding onto a tree root to keep herself from falling further down a cliff. 

The woman was taking a photo above the iconic falls in the Columbia River Gorge. She was just past the falls' bridge when she slipped and fell 20 to 30 feet, Corbett Fire said. She managed to grab onto a tree root as she fell, and was holding onto it, over a 300-foot cliff. 

Bystanders lowered a rope to her, which she managed to tie around her waist, and they held onto her from the trail. 

Video shared with KGW shows a woman off the side of a snowy hillside, holding onto a rope, as a couple of people watch from above. 

Firefighters said when they arrived, they deployed a team and were able to lower a rope rescue technician over the side to get her into a harness and pull her up. Some of the bystanders helped pull her up too, according to Rick Wunsch with Corbett Fire.

"She was very, very lucky," he said. The woman was not injured and after a medical evaluation, was able to go home with her son, who was with her. 

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