OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — In a moment, what had been a pleasant family hike turned into a 20-hour ordeal for a father and son, including a terrifying fall and overnight stay on the surface of a landslide.
Brian Lewis of Sequim and his sons, Skyler, 18, Carson, 16, and Jacob, 15, all of Port Angeles, took off Sunday morning for an afternoon of hiking in Olympic National Park.
Jacob and family members shared the story of how the whole trip went sideways, resulting in a three-agency rescue operation and helicopter extraction from the mountainside overlooking Lake Crescent.
Jacob was recovering at home from a shattered and dislocated ankle, a severely sprained ankle and other cuts and scrapes after a 150-foot fall that family members marveled hadn’t caused the teenager worse injuries.
The trip began on Pyramid Peak Trail on the north side of the lake, 20 miles west of Port Angeles.
All experienced hikers, the group members reached the peak early and were coming back down with Jacob and Carson well ahead.
“Dad told us to wait at the slide, to not go out there until they got there,” Jacob admitted.
But the brothers decided to step out onto the slide area, and as Jacob stepped onto the narrowest section of the trail, the wet soil gave way.
“I started falling,” Jacob said.
“I was trying to grab the side and was sliding, then I landed on my feet and started rolling head over heels,” he said.
Jacob hit his head and blacked out, sliding and tumbling down 150 feet, stopping about halfway down the steep slope.
“When I opened my eyes, I was in a ditch,” he said.
Jacob had cuts and scrapes all over his body, his right leg was not working well, and his left leg wasn’t moving at all.
“I could tell I broke my left ankle,” he said.
The teen heard his brother yelling from the trail above and tried to crawl back up using his right leg, but both legs went into spasms.
“Rocks were still falling. Some were hitting me,” Jacob said.
At just about that time, Brian and Skyler came around a turn in the trail and saw Jacob.
“At first, I thought he had climbed down there and was playing a trick on me,” Brian said.
Then it became clear that it was no joke, he said.
Cellphone reception was too poor for a voice call, so Brian sent text messages to everyone he knew, detailing the emergency and their location and asking them to call 9-1-1 for help.
Brian sent Skyler to the car at the trailhead to find a place where he could get good enough cellphone reception to confirm that help was coming.
Then he climbed down to his son.
There, Brian checked his son for injuries, and his emergency backpack came into use — a flashlight, water, emergency food, a firestarter, a first-aid kit, a compass, a map, extra clothes, a knife and an emergency communication device.
It was the first time the family ever needed it, Brian said, and it may have made the difference in Jacob’s outcome.
As the sun went down just before 4:30 p.m., Brian shielded his son from falling rocks and helped him roll sideways, off the slide and into the trees on the hillside, away from the added dangers of the slide itself.
Skyler returned from the car with a blanket and news that rescuers were on their way.
At about 7 p.m., park rangers and members of the Clallam County Search and Rescue arrived and determined that Jacob could not be removed in the dark.
Skyler and Carson walked out with a group of rescuers, while six rangers stayed with father and son.
Jacob was bundled into three sleeping bags, and the group settled in for the night.
At about 2 a.m., it started raining.
“That was the end of any possibility of sleep,” Brian said.
The rangers were great, father and son agreed.
Jacob said he mostly remembers that they kept the tone light, making jokes and distracting him from his pain and discomfort.
Brian’s memories of that night were of their professionalism and skill in their job.
“Those guys are heroes,” said Brian, business manager for the Sequim School District.
The boys’ mother, Debbie Lewis, and her mother, Pam Bedford, were shopping in Port Angeles when they got a call from Skyler, out of breath, telling them that Jacob had fallen and was injured but that they “had it under control.”
“They wouldn’t let me go up,” Debbie said.
Instead, Debbie had little choice but to go home to wait for news.
The family waited anxiously for word of rescue that night, but the call at 10 p.m. told them the rescue would be delayed until morning.
At about 5:30 a.m. Monday, park rangers and the search and rescue team had their heads together, making two sets of plans, Brian said.
One plan was to set up a rope rigging to get Brian, in a litter, across the slide area and down the narrow mountain trail, a slow process.
The preferred plan was to use a Coast Guard helicopter from Air Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles, but the weather was uncertain.
At home, Debbie was afraid if they tried to carry him out, it would get dark again, and her son would spend another night in the woods.
At about 11 a.m., the weather cleared just enough for a Coast Guard helicopter, Jacob was carried down to a lower section of the slide, and at 12:30 p.m., he was winched into the helicopter and flown to Olympic Medical Center, where he was treated and discharged to go home that evening.
The experience was “frightful” for Bedford, a Sequim resident.
She hikes regularly and knows the trail. She said the slide area is essentially a rock cliff going almost straight down.
“We went up that trail a couple of months ago and turned back after going partway across,” Bedford said.
“It was really, really steep. The trail is 6 inches wide at one point,” she said.
The trail slopes to one side, and there is nothing to grab onto for balance if a hiker loses footing, Brian said.
“You have to be very careful where you place your feet,” he said.
A sign at the trailhead warns of the dangers of the slide. There are no plans to shore up the trail, said Barb Maynes, Olympic National Park spokeswoman.
Jacob will recover at home for at least a week and will see a doctor Monday to learn if he will need surgery on his ankle.
Jacob, who plays baseball, said he expects to be ready to play catcher again come spring.
Brian said he takes full responsibility for the events of the day, choosing the route while knowing about the danger of the slide, and is grateful to the six park rangers, search-and-rescue members, and the Coast Guard.
He said he was also very glad he had the emergency pack on that trip.
“You can’t eliminate all risks, but you can take steps to mitigate the danger,” he said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
