By admin 
PARADISE VALLEY, AZ (AZFamily) — An Academy Award-winning animator was safely airlifted from an East Valley mountain after he became ill while hiking Wednesday morning.
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Shortly after 8 a.m., Phoenix firefighters received reports of a hiker having a medical emergency on top of Mummy Mountain, located near Tatum Boulevard and Lincoln Drive in Paradise Valley.
Phoenix Fire Capt. Todd Keller said the 72-year-old man, since identified as Glen Keane, was stuck on a ridge on top of the mountain. He was reportedly feeling dizzy and couldn’t make his way back down.
The hiker was alert but couldn’t walk himself down with the assistance of firefighters. Firefighters set up a steep rope angle system, which allows crews to safely set up a hoist operation to airlift Keane off the mountain.
The AZFamily news chopper witnessed crews tending to Keane before he was hoisted into Phoenix Firebird 10’s helicopter. He was flown to the base of the mountain where he was checked by paramedics, but didn’t need further medical treatment.
Keane is a longtime Disney animator whose credits include “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin,” “The Little Mermaid” and many more. He won an Oscar for best animated short in 2018 alongside the late NBA legend Kobe Bryant for “Dear Basketball.”
Keane said he grew up in Arizona but now lives in Paris, France. He started his hike around 6 a.m. with family members before later becoming ill.
“I was being lifted up [in the helicopter], and I was looking at all the areas that I used to climb around as a kid. And I thought, Lord, thank you. This was just a real blessing to have that crew,” Keane told Arizona’s Family. “And they were really risking their own lives on the edge of that narrow little ledge. I mean, it was very much just like a razor’s edge up there.”
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His father was Bill Keane, the famous cartoonist who created the comic strip “The Family Circus.”
Phoenix Fire Capt. Todd Keller shared a reminder about the dangers of hiking during days when extreme heat warnings have been issued.
“You’re not only putting yourself at danger, you’re also putting your firefighters and your first responders at danger. You may start your hike at 7 in the morning and an hour and a half later, it could be a 25-degree difference. You have to take that into account,” he explained.
“You need to do a gut check and say, ‘Hey listen, is it really smart for me to be out on this trail when it’s 93 degrees at seven in the morning?’” Keller added.
Mummy Mountain is not one of the Phoenix hiking trails that closes on days under an extreme heat warning.
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