A hiker survived being pinned by a boulder face-down in an Alaska creek for several hours. The man’s wife kept his head up out of the icy water until help came, preventing him from drowning. The 700-pound boulder fell unexpectedly while the pair was hiking in a remote area of Alaska south of Anchorage.
A tourism company called Seward Helicopter Tours overhead the 911 dispatch and sent a helicopter to help rescuers access the trapped man. “Once rescuers arrived, it took seven men and inflatable air bags to lift the boulder off as he drifted in and out of consciousness,” ABC News reports. Remarkably, the man, 61-year-old Kell Morris, survived with only minor injuries.
[RELATED: Practice Gets Real: Glacier Collapses During Rescue Training]
The Seward Volunteer Fire Department says that when rescue crews arrived on the scene, Morris was hyperthermic. Once they were able to remove the boulder, they warmed Morris up and then hoisted him out and over to a waiting ambulance.
The fire department says if they didn’t have access to a helicopter from Seward Helicopter Tours, this story could have ended tragically. Thankfully, it didn’t.
See posts from ABC News and the Seward Volunteer Fire Department about the hiker pinned by a boulder here:
Header stock image by cuongbtc / 500px/Getty Images