"The ongoing winter storms in the area decreased visibility for aircraft all morning. "The next morning, the Utah DPS helicopter responded from Salt Lake City," Baltrus said in the national park's news release. Because it was late and conditions were poor, the group was forced to spend the night in the area as 4 inches of snow fell in frigid weather, the television station reported. It took two hours to free the man, KUTV reported. It was approximately three hours until she got cell phone service and was able to call 911."Ī rescue crew found the woman, who was showing signs of hypothermia, and then located the man in the middle of a creek, KNXV reported. His companion left him with warm gear and clothing and hiked to call for help. He and his companion tried to free his leg and were unsuccessful. He had hiked the Left Fork Trail with a companion, also from Arizona, when he became stuck. "His leg was buried up to his knee and he was unable to free himself. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter."He was located approximately 3 hours up the Left Fork of the North Creek, also known as The Subway route from bottom-up," national park spokeswoman Aly Baltrus said in a news release. Quicksand is not normally a problem at Zion National Park, but an unusually wet winter contributed to weather conditions that created the quicksand, Baltrus said. “If it wasn’t for them and Jessica, I’d be dead for sure,” Osmun said. He was taken to a hospital and was later released, saying he felt very lucky that all he suffered was a swollen leg. READ MORE: Penticton victim in Kamloops shooting may be a case of mistaken identity Osmun stayed in a sleeping bag on top of a mat next to a fire until Sunday afternoon, when the helicopter made it to the site. He was suffering from hypothermia and rescue workers needed to airlift him out on a helicopter but it was snowing so they all had to spend the night at the site. Rescue workers found her suffering from hypothermia, park officials said in a statement.Īfter rescue workers found Osmun, it took them two hours to get his leg free from the quicksand. McNeill said she felt like she was going to faint when she finally spoke with dispatchers. It took her three hours to reach a location with cellphone service so she could call 911. “I kept telling myself: ‘He would do it for me,’” McNeill said. She left him with warm clothes and decided the fastest way to get help would be to swim down the river, which was waist-deep with frigid waters, rather than taking a trail. With no cellphone service in the remote area, they decided McNeill would have to go for help. She tried to pry his leg out with a stick, but realized that effort would not work. The trouble for Osmun and McNeill began about four hours into the couple’s hike on a popular route called “The Subway” in the southern Utah park. “When water cannot escape, it creates a liquefied soil that cannot support weight and creates suction,” Baltrus said. Osmun had stepped into a small hole filled with it, Baltrus said. Quicksand can form in saturated loose sand and standing water - the combination found on the river bed trail Osmun and McNeill were hiking, said Aly Baltrus, Zion National Park spokeswoman. man survives heart attack thanks to Facebook “And then toward the end I thought I wasn’t going to make it.” “I thought for sure I would lose my leg,” Osmun said. Ryan Osmun, 34, of Mesa, Arizona, told NBC’s “Today” show that he hallucinated at one point while waiting several hours alone after his girlfriend Jessika McNeill left him last Saturday to get help. A man who was stranded for hours in frigid weather with his leg sunk up to the knee in quicksand at a creek in Utah’s Zion National Park said Tuesday that he feared he would lose his leg and might die because the quicksand’s water was so cold.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |