A group of women on a late night hike called Cook County Law Enforcement at 1:25 a.m. on July 11 reporting that a member of their group had fallen over the cliff at White Sky Rock in Lutsen.
A companion of the woman who fell told Cook County Sheriff Deputies that the group was leaving the top of White Sky Rock when Ashley Baumann, 27, of Minneapolis turned around and went back to the summit. Her friend, Emily Johnson, 27, of Minneapolis, said she believed Baumann tripped over a step and fell over the edge.
Emergency responders were paged and eight firefighters and First Responders from Lutsen; two members of search and rescue from Tofte and two from Grand Marais; and two sheriff deputies and a state trooper responded. There was no way to reach the injured woman from the trail, so the responders bushwhacked cross-country from the Caribou Trail.
Baumann landed about 40 feet down from the cliff in a field of basketball-sized rocks. Responders got her on a backboard and in a patient basket and used ropes to belay her down the rocky hillside. Lutsen Fire Chief Paul Goettl said, “She was just in a really difficult place to get out off.”
As rescuers worked to get Baumann out of the rocky area, others opened a path to carry her out through the woods. Responders carried that woman another 200-300 feet out to the road and into the Cook County Ambulance.
Emergency responders were clear of the scene and back at their respective halls at 3:27 a.m.
Baumann was transported to Cook County North Shore Hospital where she was treated for non-life-threatening injuries. She was released from the hospital the next day.
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