Alaska man survived and was fixed in a glacial stream by a giant rock for 3 hours
An Alaska man was faced downward by a 318kg boulder facing down in a cold stream for three hours, surviving three hours of ordeal without significant harm, thanks in part to his wife's quick thinking and a lot of luck.
Kell Morris's wife lifted her head up to the water to prevent him from drowning while waiting for rescuers to arrive, and Morris was fixed to the boulder that hit him near a remote glacier near a remote glacier south of Anchorage.
His second luck was when a sled dog tour company eavesdropped on a glacier where 911 dispatches and transports its helicopter to the scene to the ambient vehicles without access to their helicopters.
Once the rescuer arrives, seven people and the inflatable airbag lift the boulder as he drifts from consciousness and drifts from consciousness.
Morris, 61, said he realized he might be the luckiest person. “Luckily, I have a great wife,” he said.
His wife, Jo Roop, is a retired Alaska soldier. Last fall, they moved to Seward, about 193 kilometers south of Idaho, when she worked at the local police department.
Last Saturday, they wanted to avoid the large crowds that gathered in the Kenai Peninsula community during the holidays and decided to hike near the Goldwin Glacier on an isolated and undeveloped trail behind the state prison.
Their trail is actually a rocky creek bed lined with large boulders deposited by glaciers.
Morris said he noticed the dangerous boulders, some weighing 454 kilograms, along the banks of the river and avoided the best he could do until he encountered an area that could not pass.
“I'm back, everything, the whole side, slid down from under me,” he said.
He said things blurred when he fell down the embankment about six meters and fell into the water face down.
Then he felt the boulder hit his back.
Crites describes it as an “an avalanche of essentially boulders.”
Chris said the way Morris landed, with rocks between his legs and under the rocks around him, grabbed the weight of the boulder and prevented him from being crushed. But the huge rock still nailed him, Morris felt the pain in his left leg and waited for the femur to snap up.
“The first time I happened, I suspected there would be a good result,” Morris said.
His wife tried to release him for about 30 minutes, put the rock under the boulder and tried to roll it off him before the cell signal was found.
Surprisingly, she only had to walk about 274 meters to connect with the 911 and rely on law enforcement experience to send exact GPS coordinates for dispatch.
A volunteer from the neighboring Bear Creek Fire Department heard the phone while working on a sled dog tour operation and transferred the helicopters that had been used to transport tourists to the scene.
Eventually, firefighters who were unable to navigate the all-terrain vehicles on the boulder field jumped out of the helicopter.
By this time Morris had already cooled down from the cold water flowing from the glacier, and his wife stuck her head out of the water.
“I think if we didn't have that private helicopter to assist us, it would have taken us at least another 45 minutes to find him, and I'm not sure if he has that much time.”
Firefighters use two normally reserved airbags to extract personnel from the damaged vehicle to lift the boulder slightly.
“But it's just becoming 'one, two, three, pushing all-round brute force,” Christ said. “And seven guys were able to lift enough money to pull the victim out.”
An Alaska National Guard helicopter lifted them from the creek bed with a rescue basket.
Morris spent two nights at the local hospital for observation, but walked away unscathed.
“I totally expect physical recovery, not to walk away without scratches,” Crites said.
Morris is now reflecting on his misery, and he admits it may be a wake-up call to stop such things at his age.
He said, “I am very lucky. God is looking for me.”
They will stick to the trails they build when he and his wife hike this weekend.
“We will stop pioneering,” he said.
