‘Miracle’ Backpack Saves Hikers Stranded on a Cliff

BY WILL BRENDZA

Luck comes in many forms, but for a father and son hiking in Utah’s Snow Canyon on February 17, it came in the form of an abandoned backpack. Stuck overnight high up on a canyon ledge, Julian Hernandez and his 12-year-old son would have had a different outcome had it not been for someone else’s misfortune, said Sergeant Jacob Paul with Washington County Search and Rescue.

“They literally had just about everything that they needed to stay about as comfortable as they possibly could until our rescuers found them,” Paul said. “There’s no other way to describe it other than a miracle.”

The pair were hiking Red Mountain Trail, a 22km route that winds from the northeastern corner of Red Mountain Wilderness down past Snow Canyon State Park and into Ivans, Utah. That was where they’d planned to be picked up by Hernandez’s wife. But they never made it.

According to Paul, near the top of the Snow Canyon overlook, they lost the trail and hiked down a sloped cliff that they couldn’t climb back up.

“Once you get up to the top, there’s no clear designated trail,” Paul said. “So it’s really easy to get lost.”

Stranded on the cliff, unable to ascend or descend safely, the two were in a precarious situation. The sun was setting. The father and son were out of food and water and only had the clothes on their backs.

According to Paul, they were very unprepared for the lengthy hike they’d embarked on — let alone to spend a cold winter night exposed on a cliff.

However, as fate would have it, someone else had gotten lost in that exact same area just weeks prior, and they’d lost a backpack full of supplies.

One rescue leads to another

The area where Hernandez became turned around. Photo: BLM

In early January, another hiker found himself helplessly perched on almost the exact same ledge as Hernandez and his son. Levi Dittman, a 15-year-old local from Ivans, was hiking the Red Mountain Trail and had similarly gotten lost and stuck 20 meters up the canyon wall.

In an attempt to get from one ledge to another, Dittman threw his pack. It was too far of a jump to make safely, though, and he couldn’t retrieve it.

Rescuers eventually found him, retrieved him from the rock wall, and brought him home safely. But his pack was left behind on that cliff for Hernandez and his son to find.

“The moment we found the backpack — it was lovely,” Hernandez said in an interview with ABC4. “We found some food in there, so that kept us pretty well. It kept us pretty well into the morning.”

Food wasn’t all they found in the pack. Inside, there was a large bottle of water, a first-aid kit, and two emergency blankets. They swaddled up in the blankets, ate snacks, and stayed hydrated while they waited for their rescue.

Searchers eventually located them by following Hernandez’s footprints. They made contact around 3:20 am, roughly seven hours after the search had begun. A helicopter from Salt Lake City was called in, and the two stranded hikers were safely extracted.

“It dropped down into the high 30s that night, and there was some pretty significant windchill, too,” Paul said. “I can’t say for sure that they wouldn’t have survived, but they would not have been in the shape that they were in if they hadn’t found that pack.”

Be prepared

Photo: Washington County SAR

The odds of getting lost and stuck on a cliff in the exact spot where another person left a backpack are extremely low. But the odds that whoever that pack belonged to was prepared with food, water, and emergency supplies? Paul said, “It’s ridiculous.”

“They were out of supplies by the time that they got stuck on this ledge. And they wouldn’t have had anything that they needed. They weren’t prepared clothing-wise. They weren’t prepared with any equipment, really, that they needed for that eventuality,” Paul said. “So they were extremely lucky to find that pack.”

Always prepare yourself for an emergency when you’re venturing out into the wilderness. It’s also important to let people know where you’re headed. Had Hernandez’s wife not notified emergency services that her husband and son hadn’t shown up where and when they were supposed to, no one would have called search and rescue.

Sure, you might get lucky if you get lost and find a fortuitous backpack loaded with food, water, and survival supplies. But you shouldn’t count on it.

“I’ve been involved with search and rescue for about four years now, and this is the only situation that I’ve seen where a piece of gear that was left from another rescue ended up practically saving the other group,” he said.

This story first appeared on GearJunkie.