A 16-year-old climber fell 500 feet off a head wall on Mount Hood and survived, according to The Washington Post.
What happened: Gurbaz Singh climbed up Mount Hood. He reached an area called the Pearly Gates, which is an icy section that is just below the final climb of the summit.
- He fell down the snow-covered mountain, falling 500 feet down the head wall that’s called Devil’s Kitchen. Somehow, though, he survived. He suffered a broken leg.
- Local news stations covered the boy’s rescue. A rescue team hiked to find him since he was stranded at about 10,500 feet on the mountain. They arrived four hours after his call for help, according to The Washington Post.
Reactions: Sgt. Marcus Mendoza told The Washington Post it was a surprising result.
- Mendoza: “A lot of things had to happen just right for him to come out of that with just a fractured leg. The way it was described to me yesterday is that professional mountaineers know they cannot fall in that area because there’s no way to rescue yourself.”
- Singh told CBC that he lost his footing when he fell: “It happened pretty quick, so it was kind of unexpected.”
- Singh’s father, Rishamdeep Singh, told KATU: “He thought he was going to stop somewhere and he was trying to arrest the fall with his axe, but it just didn’t happen because he was rolling so fast. I thank everybody who’s been of so much help to my son.”
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Next up: The younger Singh doesn’t plan to stop climbing. He and his father will return to Mount Hood to climb the mountain together, according to KATU.