Climber Dies in Cleveland National Forest

A climber rappelling down a 400-foot waterfall southwest of Julian died Friday evening and crews had to wait until first light Saturday morning to begin recovering his body, according to a Sheriff's Lt. David Brown.

A helicopter spotted the man, Matthew Pack of San Juan Capistrano,  at 5:45 p.m. Friday dangling from a rope in rushing water 200 feet below the top of Mildred Falls, said Capt. Tom Stephenson of the San Diego Fire Rescue helicopter crew. The pilot was able to see Pack using night-vision goggles, but the crew was unable to reach the climber, who seemed to be limp.

"There appeared to be no movement," Stephenson said.

A helicopter returned to Mildred Falls at 7 a.m. Saturday to join crews on foot who spent the night near the falls in the Cleveland National Forest, Brown said. They recovered Pack's body around 1 p.m. Saturday.

The 24-year-old climber was rappelling solo down the waterfall when things went wrong.

"Somehow he got tangled in his lines, we don't know why exactly, and he was stuck, suspended somewhat upside down in the actual flow of the water," Brown said.

Brown said the water temperature was just over 30 degrees.

The sheer walls surrounding the waterfall made it unsafe to recover the body with a helicopter, so crews had to hike to the area and rappel alongside the victim.

"They actually had to rappel down, and then they had to bring him up with his own lines," Brown said.

An autopsy is pending.

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Update: Our Patch.com site in San Juan Capistrano was able to interview the doctor who performed the autopsy and also a neighbor of the family, who described Pack as "a wonderful young man." 

City News Service contributed to this report.