Helmet "probably" saves Colorado ATV driver after cliffside accident "into the abyss"

An ATV driver who drove off a canyon ledge Saturday evening was saved by his helmet and then rescued by search and rescue crews.

La Plata County Search and Rescue said it responded to a call of someone stuck on a ledge around 4:30 p.m. after the person's ATV "plummeted into the abyss" in the La Plata Canyon, search and rescue officials said.

"Technical rope rescue team" members were lowered into the canyon with a litter to bring the driver back up. Crews said it took over an hour to secure the driver, whose helmet "probably saved their life."

The cold, dark and snow made matters even more difficult, as did the more than 200-foot depth of the fall. 

"It was nothing short of amazing. Everything lined up," Ron Corkish, president of La Plata County Search and Rescue and Saturday night's mission commander, told CBS News Colorado. "We had the right people and the right equipment. Conditions could've been better but they certainly could've been worse. If that fella was up there today, it'd be a whole different story."

Corkish estimated the mountainside was covered with six to nine inches of snow Sunday morning.

The driver was eventually loaded into an ambulance and taken to the hospital. The driver, identified only as a 22-year-old man, appeared to only suffer a few broken bones and did not sustain any life-threatening injuries, according to Ted Holteen, public and governmental affairs manager for La Plata County.

"Our search and rescue team is just- I can't say enough about them," he said. "They're miracle workers."