A missing California hiker was rescued after spending two days trapped behind a waterfall in California’s Sequoia National Forest, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
What happened to hiker Ryan Wardwell?
Ryan Wardwell, 46, headed into the park on Sunday, Aug. 10, to rappel the Seven Teacups waterfall, located at the North Fork of the Kern River. Wardwell was accompanied on the venture by four of his friends, though they decided to return to their cars when they reached the North Fork and saw the incredible force of the waterfall. But Wardwell, who had rappelled the Seven Teacups four previous times, was undaunted and decided to stay the course. Luckily, Wardwell’s fast-thinking friends left a life-saving note on the adventurer’s car, which explained the situation and told passersby to call 911 if Wardwell’s car was still in the lot come Monday morning.
On Aug. 11, with Wardwell’s car still in the lot, he was officially reported missing. An extensive search was launched, with emergency officials “using aircraft equipped with camera and infrared technology” to pinpoint Wardwell’s location. They were unable to find him and planned to return on Aug. 12 “at first light.”
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How was Ryan Wardwell rescued?
On Tuesday morning, rescue crews found Wardwell relatively safe but soaking wet, having sought refuge behind the waterfall. “He had come off his rappel lines and got trapped behind the waterfall because of the extreme hydraulics of the river,” officials confirmed. “He tried for days to escape, but there was nothing he could do to break through,” Capt. Kevin Kemmerling of the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office elaborated. “There was no way for him to warm up or dry out in there, so it had to have been miserable.”
Astonishing footage shows one of the rescue workers being lowered from the helicopter into the waterfall, where he was able to hook Wardwell. The two men were then pulled back onto the helicopter without incident. Authorities called Wardwell’s experience a “stunning survival story.” “I got the impression that maybe he didn’t know if he was ever going to get out of there,” Mike Crane, a California Highway Patrol flight officer paramedic who executed the rescue, told the outlet.
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