News Article:

News Article On Nates Accident
Durango man on a hike falls from cliff, dies Body found in Cascade Creek


June 25, 2006By Alex Ritzenberg | Herald Staff Writer

A 21-year-old Durango man died Saturday afternoon after falling about 100 feet from a cliff above Cascade Creek.

John Jacobs, San Juan County coroner "That trail is close to the edge in some places"
The man, Nathan McCuiston, was hiking on a trail near Lime Creek Road when he slipped and fell around 12:40 p.m., said San Juan County Undersheriff Mike McQueen.

Evidence indicates that McCuiston slid down a 50-foot bank before free-falling an additional 50 feet, McQueen said.

McCuiston was hiking with three friends, all of whom were spread out along the trail. When the hikers - in their late teens or early 20s - couldn't find McCuiston, they searched around Cascade Falls, said San Juan County Coroner John Jacobs.

A friend spotted the body in the ravine and contacted San Juan County dispatch, McQueen said.

"It looks like he slipped on the trail and tripped over a rock or a root. That trail is close to the edge in some places," Jacobs said. "It looks like a pure accident."

Assisting the San Juan County Sheriff's Department was San Juan County Search and Rescue, the San Juan County coroner, La Plata County Search and Rescue and the Durango Fire & Rescue Authority.

Members of La Plata County Search and Rescue were already doing practice exercises in the Cascade Creek canyon when they received a call for assistance, said Butch Knowlton, La Plata County's director of emergency preparedness. The eight- to 10-person crew assisted the Durango fire authority in the recovery of the body from the creek, Knowlton said.

McCuiston could have died from either shock or impact, Jacobs said. An autopsy was planned.

Jacobs said he probably gets reports of someone being injured from a minor fall along the Cascade Creek path once or twice a year.