A California teenager who experienced altitude-related hallucination on the highest mountain in the lower 48 states, walked down the cliff, but his family began to recover slowly but was still in a medically induced coma.
Earlier this month, 14-year-old Zane Wach and his father Ryan climbed Mount Whitney in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on a climber’s route, an eight-mile route described by Sierra Mountain Center as “steep” and “not right.” As the Wachs began to descend toward the car on a safer route, Zane began to experience the hallucination of a “snowman” on the trail and was in a “changed mental state.” SFGATE.
“It's totally weird,” Woch said in an interview with SFGATE. “He told me that he couldn't tell if he was dreaming, and he would shake his head in disbelief, like 'It's not real.' Like he did in something like the movie Founding.
According to the U.S. Forest Service, the peaks of Mount Whitney attract 30,000 hikers a year, and suffer fatal injuries on average twice a year. Climbers who wish to rise during the spring and summer peaks between May 1 and November 1 must apply for a license through the lottery system, which limits the mountain to 100 climbers per day, and only 60 of the “difficulties” of climbing at night.
The climber's route is a path for experienced hikers to climb the top of Whitney, which has an altitude of more than 14,000 feet. It is not clear whether WACH reaches the summit, but according to the CDC, any traveler who reaches 8,000 feet (sometimes lower) is susceptible to altitude sickness and symptoms such as confusion and “poisoning,” which are often associated with swelling in the brain.
Wah told the Independent that Zane continued to fall, they gradually went in and out of Delirium as they continued to fall, and the two took regular breaks as Zane tried to restore Lucity. Wah added that his son would “sleepwalk” from his father to the edge of the trail.
Once Zane noticed his mental deterioration, another group of hikers, including EMT, assessed Zane's condition. Wah told the Independent that once he briefly turned his gaze away from his son, Zane “turned” toward the edge of the deep slope, an estimated 120 feet of fall.
“I didn't see how he survived,” Voch told the Independent.
But when his father arrives at him, Zane is half-conscious and nearby hikers contact the rescue team. Authorities say the search and rescue team in Iyo County worked about six hours to rescue Zane as his father tried to keep warm.
According to the family’s Gofundme, Zane was flew to the Sunrise Children’s Hospital in Las Vegas, the nearest pediatric trauma center. Zane survived any significant physical injury when he suffered head trauma and was trapped in a medically induced coma. Wah told Savgate that his son had broken ankle and fingers and broke part of his pelvis.
Zane's grandmother said in a Facebook post that Zane was still in a medically induced coma but began breathing nearly three weeks after he fell a “huge milestone.”
Wah added that doctors are currently trying to remove Zane's small amount of medication.
“He has been taking a lot of heavy drugs for a while and getting out is extremely difficult and painful,” Woch wrote. “As a parent, it looks terrible. We hope he can get through this with minimal suffering.”
