A 14-year-old boy plunged 120 feet off a cliff in front of his terrified father after hallucinating from altitude sickness and claiming he saw “snowmen and Kermit the Frog.”
Zane Wach is currently in a medically induced coma following the June 10 fall on Mount Whitney in California’s Sierra Nevada, which left him with severe head injuries along with a broken ankle, finger, and pelvis, according to SFGate.
The ordeal began as the father and son were descending the mountain. Despite the challenging conditions, Ryan Wach said he had complete confidence in his son’s ability to handle the trek.
“He’s in better shape than I am,” Wach told the outlet, explaining that his son was an experienced hiker and an active teenager who competed in distance running, swimming, and triathlons.
Zane Wach was put into a medically induced coma after falling from a cliff while experiencing altitude sickness.
“The plan was for this to be his introduction to mountaineering,” his father said.
But as they continued up the mountain, Zane gradually began showing signs of altitude sickness.
Wach noticed his son was struggling, but by then they had completed the most difficult sections of the hike. To make the descent safer, he chose an easier trail for the seven-mile trek back to their car.
But as they approached the trailhead, Wach said Zane began to “experience some hallucinations.”
“He knew he was hallucinating,” Wach explained. “He said he was seeing things like snowmen and Kermit the Frog.”
Wach said he was watching his son closely on the way down and even noticed Zane looking “considerably better” for a while.
However, about an hour later, Zane’s behavior changed again. He began acting strangely and questioning what was real.
“My best guess is it was a combination of exhaustion, sleep deprivation, probably some dehydration, and lingering effects of altitude sickness. But he basically started to doubt reality,” Wach said.
As they continued down the trail, they had to stop when Zane insisted they had “already finished the hike multiple times.”
“It was completely bizarre,” Wach recalled.
“He told me he couldn’t tell if he was dreaming, and he’d shake his head in disbelief, saying, ‘This is not real.’ It was like he was in the movie ‘Inception’ or something.”
Zane’s worsening mental state ultimately led a nearby group of hikers to call for a search and rescue team to help get him off the mountain.
Zane’s father, Ryan, said his son began behaving oddly and questioning what was real.
However, around that time, Zane’s behavior went from bad to worse, according to his father.
“He was worse than before,” Wach told The Independent. “He almost seemed like he was sleepwalking. He started dragging his feet and just stopped. He didn’t want to keep going.”
Wach said his son began making erratic movements toward a ledge next to the trail, which dropped off into a steep, jagged slope, but he managed to grab him before he could fall.
At one point, the 14-year-old insisted he was heading to the car—even though it was several thousand feet below them on the mountain.
Later, Zane again tried moving toward the slope but was stopped by his father. This time, he claimed he was trying to get “dinner.”
Feeling overwhelmed trying to keep his son safe, Wach admitted he became emotional and briefly let go of him.
“I had to wipe away tears. I was holding my hands to my eyes, and he walked off again,” Wach told SFGate.
“This time, I didn’t hear him until he was near the edge. When I reached for him, he was 10 feet away. I couldn’t get to him, and he went over.”
Zane then fell an estimated 120 feet down the slope before hitting the ground.
Zane’s worsening mental state led a nearby group of hikers to call for a search and rescue team to help get him down the mountain.
Wach sprinted down the slope to reach his son when a nearby hiker, who happened to be an EMT, saw what happened and joined the rescue efforts.
Zane remained on the slope for about six hours while Inyo County Search & Rescue teams worked to safely evacuate him from the mountain.
He was first airlifted to Southern Inyo Hospital in Lone Pine, then transferred to Sunrise Children’s Hospital in Las Vegas, the closest pediatric trauma center.
Despite the severity of the fall, doctors at Sunrise described Zane’s survival as “fairly miraculous,” his father told the outlet.
In a GoFundMe campaign created to help cover Zane’s medical expenses, Wach said his son is “improving” and briefly opened his eyes on Wednesday, though he “still has a long way to go.”
Hallucinations are a serious symptom of altitude sickness, specifically high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE), a condition where the brain swells due to oxygen deprivation, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
HACE affects fewer than 1% of people who ascend to elevations between 13,000 and 18,000 feet above sea level.