Zane Wack, an experienced hiker who runs, swims and competes in triathlons, nearly collapsed from altitude sickness while hiking with his father, Ryan Wack, on California’s Mount Whitney in June 2025.
“He started experiencing some hallucinations,” Ryan told SFGATE of the 14-year-old boy. “He knew he was hallucinating. He said he saw things that looked like snowmen and Kermit the Frog.”
Ryan managed to stop the boy from falling off the cliff multiple times as he made his way down the trail. “My son was in an altered mental state, but we don’t know what caused it. We don’t know yet,” the father said. “My guess is that it was a combination of extreme fatigue, lack of sleep, perhaps some dehydration, and the lingering effects of altitude sickness. But he essentially began to question reality.”
On the third attempt, Ryan was too far away to catch Zane and watched as his son fell about 120 feet off the cliff. After waiting six hours for an Inyo County Search and Rescue helicopter to take him to Southern Inyo Hospital in Lone Pine, Zane was stabilized and transferred to a pediatric trauma center in Las Vegas. He was placed in a medically induced coma and eventually began breathing on his own.
“It’s going to end up being a story of survival,” Ryan said of the teenager, who suffered a broken finger, ankle and pelvis, as well as a head injury. “But we’re still in the thick of it.”
