A hiker from Seward was struck by a big boulder on Saturday and spent almost two hours pinned face-down in a glacial creek.
Kell Morris, 61, said he’s surprised he survived.
“Oh yeah, I was pretty sure I wouldn't,” he said Wednesday.
The Seward Fire Department’s account of the incident makes for dramatic reading:
"The patient was found lying in the creek on his stomach with an approximately 700 lb. boulder on top of him with his spouse holding his head out of the water,” it says.
A lot of stars had to align for Morris to survive, said Seward Fire Chief Clinton Crites. One is that Seward Helicopter Tours had a chopper nearby and ferried rescuers and their gear to Morris. Crites said that saved about 45 crucial minutes.
“When they first got there, he was in and out of consciousness,” Crites said. “So I'm not sure, being that hypothermic, how much longer — you know, if he had 45 minutes left or not.”
Another star in the alignment is that Morris’s wife, Jo Roop, is a police officer for the City of Seward and knew exactly the information dispatchers needed.
“Not just giving us directions of where the canyon is. She gave us exact coordinates,” Crites said.
Morris said he and Roop were hiking along Fourth of July Creek, and followed a branch called Godwin Creek. They had to cross the creek a few times. The canyon narrowed. Morris said he tried to find a way around a patch of rocks but turned around, figuring that route was impassable.
That’s when the rock pile let loose.
“How I slid is kind of a blur. I obviously lost my footing and fell down, and I ended up face down in the river. And the sound of those large boulders rolling against each other — it makes a pretty distinctive sound,” he said. “And being hit. I remember being hit in the back pretty hard.”
Morris’s left leg and the left side of his torso were pinned. He said he felt at times that his femur was about to break. Roop worked for about 30 minutes to try to move the boulder, then decided she should hike out of the canyon until she could get cell service. At that point Morris was strong enough to hold a push-up position to keep his head up. Even in that dire situation, Morris said his wife had a sense of humor.
"She graciously tells me, ‘don't go anywhere. I'll be right back,’” he recalled.
Rescuers from the Seward and Bear Creek fire departments used airbags and other equipment normally used to extract people from car crashes to move the boulder. An Air National Guard helicopter took Morris to safety.
Morris spent two nights in the hospital but somehow escaped with little more than bruises.
“I'm walking and, you know, if there was a band nearby, I'd go dancing tonight,” he said.
