Zane Wach, an experienced hiker who competes in distance running, swimming and triathlons, nearly fell into severe illness in June 2025 while hiking with his father Ryan Wach in Mount Whitney, California.
“He started experiencing some hallucinations,” Ryan explained to 14-year-old SFGate. “He knew he knew hallucinations. He said he saw something like a snowman or Kermit the frog.”
Ryan managed to stop the teenager from walking off the cliffs multiple times as he returned down the trail. “He had changed his mind so we don’t know what the cause was. We don’t know yet,” my father pointed out. “My biggest guess is the combination of fatigue, lack of sleep, perhaps dehydration, and the lasting effects of severe illness. But he essentially began to doubt reality.”
And in the third attempt, Ryan was too far to catch Zane, watching his son fall about 120 feet off the cliff. After waiting six hours for Inyo County Search & Rescue Helicopter to arrive there and fly to Zane Southern Inyo Hospital in Lone Pine, he was steadyly transferred to the Pediatric Trauma Center in Las Vegas. Putting himself in a medically induced coma, he eventually began to breathe himself.
“It’s going to be a survival story in the end,” Ryan said of the teenager who suffered head injuries along with broken fingers, ankles and pelvis.
