A teen, who took an almost fatal plunge off Mt. Whitney, has finally returned home after an extended stay in the hospital. He's reflecting on what happened that fateful day.
14-year-old Zane Wach had been descending Mt. Whitney with his father when he suffered altitude sickness. He began seeing strange hallucinations such as Kermit the Frog as well as snowmen. These hallucinations caused him to fall more than 100 feet and almost cost him his life. Following the accident, Wach said he doesn't remember anything about his hike to Mt. Whitney.
"Nope," Wach told NBC. It's been a long recovery so far. He's had to relearn motor skills after falling into a coma. Zane had been hiking with his father Ryan on Mt. Whitney when he fell ill.
Mt. Whitney Plunge
"He said, 'You know, dad, I'm hallucinating you see all those little snow things, spots down there, snow fields? They look like snowmen. Or the green lakes over there? It kind of looks like Kermit the Frog and his friends," said Ryan. The two began their walk down Mt. Whitney but Zane stepped off the ledge.
"He just walked over the edge like he was walking to the car and I just screamed," Ryan recalled. "I was certain he had died. I didn't know how he could survive that."
Zane survived a 120-foot fall below and a six-hour wait for search and rescue to get them to a local hospital. He had been airlifted and placed into a medically induced coma. Fortunately, he survived his fall and is on the process to recovery. The teen will be taking the school year off to focus on his therapy and recovery.
Despite the incident and injuries, Zane would like to return to Mt. Whitney. The incident hasn't put off his sense of adventure. He said, "If we got scared and started living our lives based off of one thing that went wrong, it wouldn't be much of a life. We can't live that way." Hopefully if he does make a return trip to the mountains, it goes a lot better this time.
