A man stranded on a rocky spire in the Washington Cascades for 18 hours is so thankful to the helicopter crew that saved his life that he donated $10,000 to their rescue organization. The climber has chosen not to be identified.
But his story is being told across the Pacific Northwest after he got stuck on a rocky outcropping, unable to climb either up or down. The man’s harrowing story began on the morning of July 30th. The 37-year-old set out to climb the 7,960-foot Mt. Daniel, a rocky pinnacle that juts into the sky amid mountain snowfields, northeast of Snoqualmie Pass and west of Leavenworth.
He began the arduous journey alone, departing from the Cathedral Rock trailhead at 5:00 am. By late afternoon, he arrived at the summit of the towering peak. As he started back down, the lone climber mistakenly took the wrong route. It was a costly error that led him down a rocky, steep slope onto a small cliff ledge.
By this time, it was around 6:00 pm, with just a few hours of daylight remaining to figure out what to do. With no safe path to follow to higher ground, or a secure passage down, it soon became clear he was trapped and would have to remain overnight on the razor-thin ledge on which he was standing. That meant surviving a treacherous night in that precarious position.
KIRO-TV CBS 7 Seattle
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