Ryan Wardwell was rappelling down Seven Teacups falls when ‘extreme hydraulics’ trapped him behind a cascade
A California man who recently became trapped behind a waterfall for two days while climbing was dramatically rescued by police utilizing a helicopter.
Ryan Wardwell, 46, of Long Beach, went to waterfalls known as the Seven Teacups on 10 August with plans to rappel down, the sheriff’s office of Tulare country said in a social media post. But the “extreme hydraulics” of the waterfalls pushed Wardwell off his rappelling lines and trapped him behind a cascade of the Kern river, according to the sheriff’s office.
His failure to return to his car that night prompted local law enforcement to spend 11 August searching for him with infrared technology and aircraft. Difficult terrain and fading daylight thwarted their efforts that day. But rescuers found Wardwell the next day after flying a drone behind the cascade in question.
Wardwell was alive and conscious when rescuers spotted him, and he told them how he had become stranded there, the Tulare county sheriff’s office said. A California highway patrol helicopter crew then managed to hoist him to safety to cap off what the sheriff’s office declared a “stunning survival story”.
