Man plummets 500 feet to his death off mountain, woman falls 30 feet trying to save him

A Memorial Day hike ended in tragedy when a man lost his balance and plummeted 500 feet to his death off the summit ridge of a mountain.

A Memorial Day hike ended in tragedy when a man lost his balance and plummeted 500 feet to his death off the summit ridge of a mountain and a woman who tried to grab him as he was falling was severely injured after tumbling 30 feet in her rescue attempt. The incident happened on Monday, May 31, when a three-person hiking group was making their way along the summit ridge of Mount Russell in California’s Sequoia National Park and a 56-year-old man from San Jose, California, suddenly lost his balance as he was walking, said the National Park Service in a statement. Another member of the group, a 45-year-old woman from Milpitas, California, made an attempt to rescue him by grabbing the man as he was falling but ended up being pulled down herself. The man ended up falling approximately 500 feet to his death off of the summit of the mountain while the woman ended up falling about 30 feet before she was able to self-arrest and save her own life, although she was left badly injured.