YouTuber Falls to His Death in Zion

UPDATE Oct 10, 2024 7:08 AM CDT

The canyoneer who fell to his death in Utah's Zion National Park has been identified as YouTuber Justin Bingham. The 40-year-old was with three others near the exit of Heaps Canyon when he dropped 150 to 200 feet, according to the National Parks Service. He chronicled life with his wife and four children, including a son with cerebral palsy, on the YouTube channel Life in Holland, per KSL. He was also CEO of Utah-based software company Opiniion, which offers property management solutions, per Fox Business. The company describes him as a mentor, dad, friend, visionary, and eternal optimist whose "spirit of adventure and dedication to living life fully will be deeply missed."

Oct 7, 2024 9:15 AM CDT

A 40-year-old man enjoying a day in Utah's Zion National Park fell to his death over the weekend, and the National Park Service is now offering more details, reports ABC4. According to a statement from the NPS, the visitor was canyoneering with three others and "following their permitted itinerary" in Heaps Canyon on Saturday when he tumbled between 150 and 200 feet around 6pm local time. More than 50 first responders—including police, firefighters, and members of the park's search and rescue team—converged upon the scene, and a state Department of Public Safety chopper retrieved the man from the canyon and took him to a nearby campsite, where further aid was administered.

Unfortunately, the as-yet unidentified man died before he could be airlifted to a local hospital, the NPS notes. The following morning, two of the deceased man's three companions were "extracted safely" by helicopter, while the third was aided by Zion's search and rescue team in rappelling back to safe ground. An investigation is ongoing. NBC News notes this isn't the first fatality in Heaps Canyon: There've been at least two other deaths over the past decade—a 24-year-old man who died in 2015 while canyoneering, and a 31-year-old man who died in 2021 while rappelling. (More Zion National Park stories.)