California police used a helicopter to rescue a man trapped for two days behind a waterfall along the Kern River when the "extreme hydraulics" of the water pushed him off his climbing lines, law enforcement officials said. Ryan Wardwell, 46, of Long Beach, California, had planned to rappel down the falls known as the Seven Teacups on Sunday in a remote, rough-terrain area about two hours south of Sequoia National Park, the Tulare County Sheriff's Office said, per the AP. When he never returned from his hike that evening, a search ensued.
Despite using aircraft and infrared technology, officials couldn't immediately find Wardwell and called off the search on Monday evening, resuming it the next day. On Tuesday, a drone deployed by a search and rescue team located the stranded hiker, and a helicopter was sent out to undertake the rescue. The deputy who made the save tells NBC News that his colleagues "were able to lower me perfectly right next to" Wardwell, allowing the deputy to place Wardwell "in a recovery suit, hook him up, [and] get him back into the helicopter."
Tulare County Sheriff's Capt. Kevin Kemmerling tells KSEE that Wardwell had been with a group of four friends who decided they weren't skilled enough to pull off the rappel, leaving Wardwell to do it on his own. The friends left a note on Wardwell's vehicle in the parking lot, informing anyone who came across it that if the vehicle was still there on Monday, that they should alert the authorities, per the San Francisco Chronicle.
story continues below
Kemmerling adds that three people drowned in the same spot last year, which he calls a "drowning machine." When water flow in that location is high, "there's just no chance of survival" in the whitewater swirl that locals have dubbed the "toilet bowl." Wardwell, however, who's said to have successfully rappelled in that spot before, escaped relatively unscathed, treated just for minor injuries and dehydration, officials say.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
