Ella's Road to Recovery

On July 5th , Ella Hall was rock climbing with her friends near Durango, CO; something she is very skilled at. She was on lead with her friend Will belaying. As she neared the top of the route, Ella fell, however, due to a combination of poor rock quality and gear failing, her fall became unarrestable, sending her 60 feet down to rocks and hard pack. A fall of this magnitude has a less than 50% survival rate. Will, a Wilderness EMT, was 5 ft from her when she landed.  He quickly went to work, assessing her injuries and administering care with friends and a bystander.  At this time, another friend, Luke, ran up the trail to get cell service and called Search & Rescue, who were able to arrive on scene roughly 15 minutes later. Ella was then rapidly evacuated to a helicopter, where she was flown to a Level 2 Trauma Center in Grand Junction.

In Grand Junction, she was given several scans to assess her injuries and it was determined she had not sustained any brain or spinal cord injuries–thankfully she had been wearing her helmet. However, due to the extent of her injuries, she was classified as Trauma 1 Critical and flown to a Level 1 Trauma Center in Denver, CO. 

While we are incredibly thankful Ella does not have any brain or spinal trauma, her injuries are still extensive: she suffered bilateral pneumothoraces (both of her lungs collapsed on scene), a broken right femur, multiple fractures to her pelvis (any of these injuries individually can take a health person's life), a compression fracture to her L2 vertebrae, as well as multiple fractures to her feet, heels, ankles, jaw, and face (resulting in the loss of 12 teeth), including bilateral temporal fractures and a labyrinthine concussion. Finally, she also suffered various lacerations including a large one under her chin (luckily missing any major arteries) as well as a large morel-lavallee lesion (closed degloving injury) to her upper right hamstring area.  While all of these injuries are fixable, it will be a long and painful road to recovery, before Ella will be able to get back to doing what she loves.


Sheryl and Tim,  Ella's mother and father flew to Denver from Madison, WI to be by Ella's side. While her friends drove through the night back to Denver to help as they could. 

Ella was in Denver Health's Surgical ICU for roughly 10 days while specialty teams of surgeons including orthopedics, neurosurgery and maxillofacial trauma specialists did extensive surgeries to repair her injuries. Afterwards she was transferred to the general floor of the, hospital to recover and begin physical therapy where she worked to tolerate sitting up in a wheelchair for short periods of time. As of Tuesday (7/30), twenty-five days post accident, Ella was transferred from Denver Health to a Long Term Acute Care Facility (LTAC) to continue her recovery and physical therapy while awaiting further surgery and future dental reconstruction. Through all of this Ella has been making daily progress with the constant attention of various doctors, nurses and aides while Sheryl, Tim and Will have been by her side endlessly. We are confident Ella is on the road to a full recovery, however long it will take.


Our hope as a family, is to get Ella back to the activities she was involved in before the fall. Ella loves to rock climb, backcountry ski, trail run, bike, play hockey, kayak, camp and swim.  Her favorite place to be is the outdoors.  Ella is a junior at the University of Colorado–Boulder where she is in an Environmental Studies Major with a Minor in Geology and a Certificate in Arctic Studies.  She plans to study abroad in Patagonia–a goal that is still potentially viable and a source of motivation.  Ella is on the Board of Directors for both the CU Alpine Club and the CU Backcountry Club.  She works as an instructor and trip leader for the university's Outdoor Program.
In order for Ella to recover, she will be needing extensive rehabilitation in a specialized facility.  When she returns home to Boulder, she will need modifications to her apartment and assistance with travel to appointments.

Our ask is to send positive vibes to Ella, Sheryl, Tim and Will.  She is young, strong, healthy and motivated!  We are looking for funds to help pay for Ella's medical and rehabilitation expenses that are not covered by insurance.  Our goal is $50,000.   She has a long road to recovery ahead.  Anything to minimize financial stress will help so she can focus on healing.