Hiker with broken leg rescued at Wallace Falls
Published 9:12 pm Monday, June 22, 2015
GOLD BAR — The rescue of a man who went off-trail at Wallace Falls State Park on Saturday took four hours and about 150 feet of rope.
The man, believed to be in his late 20s, had been hiking in the area of the upper falls. That’s about three miles up the trail, after a 1,300-foot elevation gain.
The man was off trail, in a shallow part of the falls, attempting to jump from one rock to another rock about 10 feet farther down, Gold Bar fire Lt. Brandon Vargas said.
“He made that jump and the rock is pretty slippery down there,” Vargas said. “When he landed, his foot went out and he broke his leg.”
The first 911 call came about 3 p.m. Crews weren’t given much info. They were told the man with a leg injury was on a road instead of along the river. Once they found him, they knew they’d need a complicated system of ropes to get him out, Vargas said. They called in more help from fire departments in Index and Monroe.
“It was just a matter of getting manpower out there in that remote location,” Vargas said
Once the ropes were in place, Vargas was lowered down to the man on the rocks in a pooled area about 10 feet from a drop-off, he said.
He splinted the man’s leg, and got him into a harness, life jacket and helmet.
Then the other firefighters hoisted them both back up — a load of about 450 pounds total. It was about 7 p.m. by then, and an ambulance was waiting at the trailhead to take the man to the hospital in Monroe.
It was at least the sixth rescue in the Gold Bar and Index area in less than a week, Vargas said. Half of the incidents happened at Wallace Falls or nearby.
The picturesque state park close to town is one of the most popular hikes in Snohomish County. Last summer, a man was hoisted out with ropes after surviving a 60-foot fall. A similar fall had happened the year before.
In 2012, a 13-year-old boy waited on a ledge for more than eight hours before he was pulled to safety. The boy had narrowly missed a 270-foot drop.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
