An Alaska man who was pinned face to face in a shot frozen by a rock of 700 pounds for three hours survived the test with only minor injuries.
Kell Morris, 61, said that he was one of the most lucky men living, thanks in part to his wife’s rapid thought and a lot of luck.
“And lucky than I have such a big wife,” Morris told the Associated Press on Thursday.
Morris’ wife held her head above the water to prevent him from drowning while waiting for the rescuers to arrive after Morris was pinned by the rock, who crashed on him during a hike near a distant glacier south of Anchorage. The couple decided to hike on the distant path to avoid the crowd of tourists who visit the Kenai peninsula during the Memorial Day weekend.
This June 4, 2023, the photo shows Kell Morris, on the left, and his wife Jo Roop, in Sandpoint, Idaho.
Kell Morris via AP
He said that his second luck had come when a sled dog tourism company operating on the glacier heard the distribution of 911 and proposed sending his helicopter to the scene where Morris was trapped, which was inaccessible to all-terrain vehicles.
It took seven inflatable men and inflatable cushions to lift the rock of Morris while he was drifting and emerging from consciousness.
Morris’ wife Jo Roop, a retired soldier from Alaska state, said he moved to Seward of Idaho last fall when she took a job with the local police service.
The couple decided to hike near Godwin Glacier on an isolated path and not developed behind a state prison. The path had a rocky stream bed lined with large rocks deposited by the glacier.
Morris said he had noticed dangerous rocks along the shores of the stream and had tried to avoid them, until he fell into an area he could not pass.
It was then that a 700-pound rock rocker came down and pinned it in the stream, similar to James Franco Biographical film, 127 hoursWhere a mountain climber is trapped under a rock while canyonering alone in Utah.
“I was coming back and all, the whole side slipped from me,” said Morris, noting that it was at this moment that he felt that the rock struck his back on him.
Sewarder’s firefighters, Clinton, the crimes described him as “essentially an avalanche of rocks”.
When Morris landed, there were rocks under him, between his legs and around him who took the weight of the rock, preventing him from being crushed, According to criticism. But the only massive rock had always pinned her and Morris felt pain in his left leg and said he was waiting for his femur to rush.
“When this happened for the first time, I doubted there was a good result,” said Morris.
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ROOP tried to release it for about 30 minutes by putting rocks under the rock and trying to move it before leaving it to find a phone signal to call for help.
She walked nearly 300 meters to connect with the 911 and used her experience in the application of laws to send the exact GPS coordinates to send to help save her husband.
After Bear Creek’s fire service heard the call, he diverted the helicopter and firefighters jumped to help move the rock.
As the firefighters arrived, Morris was hypothermal of the cold water from the glacier, the criticisms said.
“I think that if we had not had this private helicopter to help us, it would have taken us at least 45 minutes to join him, and I’m not sure he had so much time,” said Crites.
The firefighters used ropes, a “brute force” and two airbags which are normally used to extract people from nautical vehicles to slightly lift the rock.
“But then he became a raw force all the hands of” One, Two, Three, Push “,” said Crites. “And seven guys were able to raise him enough to remove the victim.”
“Once out of the water, the crew warmed the patient, and it became more alert, and its vital signs have improved. It was determined that there was no effective and safe to drop the patient from the canyon,” according to Seward’s fire service.
“The Alaska rescue coordination center through Alaska state soldiers has been contacted to get help. The AKRCC sent the 176th wing of the National Guard of the National Guard Pararescue to hoist the patient in the canyon and transfer it to the pending ambulance. ”
A helicopter of the Alaska National Guard took them out of the stream bed with a rescue cover and Morris spent two nights at Seward Providence Hospital to observe before leaving unscathed.
“I fully expected a recovery from the body, not to move away from it without a scratch,” said Crites.
“I was very lucky. God took care of me,” said Morris.
Seward’s fire service said there was “no doubt that without the help of Seward’s helicopter visits, this incident could have had a very different and potentially fatal result.”
“These are members of the community and businesses that we work so well with whom our jobs easier and more productive. We are sending a big thank you to Seward Helicopter Tours, Pilot Neo Martinson & Sam Paperman, Seward Fire and Bear Creek Fire Responders, Ak State Troopers, Akrcc, the 176th Air Wing and Svac for having managed to save you “, the rescue”, the rescue has succeeded “, the rescue succeeded”, the Akrcc, SVAC for having achieved success “, the rescue succeeded”, the rescue succeeded “, the rescue succeeded”, the rescue succeeded “, the rescue succeeded”, the rescue succeeded “, the rescue Akrc The fire service added in its press release.
Morris said that when he hikes with his wife this weekend, they will stick to authorized trails.
“We are going to stop the pioneer,” he said.
A similar situation took place in December 2023When a hiker trapped under a large rock in the Inyo mountains in California, located between the national parks of Sequoia and Death Valley.
Inyo County Research and RescueA volunteer organization that works in tandem with the Sheriff’s Bureau of the county of Inyo, said that it had been alerted about the hiker trapped in the afternoon of December 5.
The team “arrived at the location of the hiker well after nightfall” and found the hiker “in great pain with his left leg stuck under a large rock on a steep hill”, according to a Facebook publication.
After a hiker is trapped under a large rock in the Inyo mountains, the rescuers worked all night to release it.
Inyo County Research and Rescue
The rescuers estimated that the rock weighed somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 pounds.
With “limited resources” to lift the heavy rock, the rescuers have shaped a system of ropes and pulleys and used a lever effect to move the rock enough to release the trapped hiker.
The hiker suffered serious injuries.
– With Global News and Associated Press files