Boy stranded in river after plunge over waterfall
May 20, 2012, 1:21 PM | Updated: 9:23 pm
The first search and rescue attempt failed when a rescue worker was lowered from a helicopter and fell into the water. Volunteers were able to rescue a 13-year-old boy eight hours later. (AP photo)
(AP photo)
A 13-year-old boy fell over a waterfall and was stranded
for
more than eight hours on a rock Saturday.
The Burien teen was hiking near the city of Gold Bar in
Snohomish County with his parents when he started wading
in the Wallace River at
around 5:00 p.m. The fast waters quickly caused him to
lose
his balance.
“He almost immediately went over a waterfall. His luck was
good because he was able to scramble himself to a rock,
which is just above our main waterfall,” said Lt. Suzy
Johnson with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department.
The boy narrowly escaped a seventy foot drop down the
second waterfall, Wallace Falls. He was able to get to a
rock, but was stranded there for more than eight hours
before rescue workers could get to him.
The first rescue attempt by helicopter failed. The boy was
on a rock that was partially blocked by an overhead rock
face. When a rescue worker was lowered down to the rock in
a harness there wasn’t a clear vertical descent for the
helicopter.
“That rescuer tried to swing himself closer to the boy on
the rock, but that friction actually broke his rappel rope
and caused the rescuer to fall into the river.”
The search and rescue helicopter was able to pull the
volunteer back in with his belay line, but the boy was
still trapped on a rock that was only about one foot
across.
“We started a secondary rescue up-river. That took several
hours for them to get to the boy,” says Lt. Johnson.
In the meantime, search and rescue volunteers threw the
boy clothes and food.
Finally, at 1:36 a.m., rescue workers were able to set up
ropes and rigging to bring the boy the fifteen feet from
the rock to the shore.
“When you wade into a river, it’s very dangerous and
certainly above a waterfall it is not recommended. It’s
really easy to lose your footing because the rocks are
very slippery and the water’s very fast.”
The boy was unharmed and was flown out of the area at
6:00 a.m. on Sunday.
