Surrey teen survives 150-metre fall down snowy mountain in Oregon
Credit to Author: David Carrigg| Date: Thu, 02 Jan 2020 03:04:42 +0000
A Surrey teen has survived a fall down an icy chute near the top of Mount Hood in Oregon.
According to a news report on Portland-based KATU news station, 16-year-old Gurbaz Singh was climbing the mountain on Monday morning with friends when ice gave way in the steep and narrow Pearly Gates section of the climb to the peak.
Singh, while trying to stop his fall with an ice-axe, rolled and fell about 150 metres before coming to rest below the chute. He fractured his femur.
About 30 search and rescue workers were deployed and arrived at about 1:30 p.m. It took three hours to get him down to the waiting ambulance.
Rishamdeep Singh told the news outlet that his son was an experienced climber for his age and that he had scaled over 90 peaks.
“He thought he was going to stop somewhere, and he was trying to arrest the fall with his axe, but it just didn’t happen because he was rolling so fast that he couldn’t do it,” Rishamdeep Singh told news crews.
According to a fundraising page created by a friend, Singh had surgery on Tuesday and was now recovering in a hospital in Portland.
“Gurbaz, his family and friends are still in shock but at the same time very grateful that he survived this horrendous fall,” the friend, Mel Olson, wrote.
Singh attends Tamanawis Secondary School.
Gurbaz Singh after completing a climb in May, 2019.