Teenager taken off ventilator in ‘giant milestone’ after falling 120ft on Mount Whitney while hallucinating

A 14-year-old boy appears to be on the road to recovery weeks after walking off a 120-foot cliff during a hike on California’s Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the continental United States.

Zane Wach was placed into a coma following the harrowing incident in which the teenager began hallucinating due to what doctors believe was altitude sickness.

His father, Ryan Wach, shared the news his son reached his first ‘giant milestone’ after having his breathing tube removed. 

‘I’ll be brief today as it was a big day but very hard,’ Ryan wrote.

‘Zane had the breathing tube removed and was taken off the [ventilator]. This was a giant milestone and opens the door to many new steps forward. 

‘He’s not doing much else at the moment, the largest focus is watching closely so that he does well breathing on his own as well and being able to cough and swallow.

‘The hard part is that he is well into feeling the effects of withdrawal,’ the doting dad explained. 

‘He’s been on a lot of heavy drugs for a while and getting off those is extremely hard and painful. As parents, it’s terrible to watch. We hope he gets through this with the least possible suffering.’ 

Zane Wach, 14, is now breathing on his own after being placed into a coma after walking off the side of a 120-foot cliff during a hike on California ‘s Mount Whitney last month

Zane hikes to the highest peak in the continental United States alongside his father Ryan, right, but the teen suffered a bout of altitude sickness in which he started to hallucinate

Ryan witnessed his son’s fall and earlier told how the teenager was just out of reach when he fell over the side of the cliff. He said there was nothing he could do to prevent the fall.

The trouble began on June 10 as the pair summited the 14,505-foot peak of California’s Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the continental United States.

Zane suddenly starting feeling the affects of altitude sickness and began hallucinating while starting talking nonsense. 

‘He said, like those snow patches down there, they look like snowmen. Or those green lakes in the distance, I see Kermit the Frog and his friends and a few other random things.

‘He told me he couldn’t tell if he was dreaming or not.’ said Ryan. ‘And then he said he was going to the car. But the car was thousands of feet below us.’

‘I’ve never seen anything like it,’ Ryan told SFGate.

‘He wasn’t making sudden movements, but it was like he was sleepwalking. I didn’t trust what he might do.

Ryan said Zane’s awareness of the hallucinations initially gave him some comfort. 

‘He was aware of it, which of course worried me, but he was still able to explain what was happening,’ Ryan said. ‘I thought, OK, maybe it’ll pass.’

But the clarity didn’t last and suddenly Zane decided he simply wanted to stop.

‘He’s not a quitter. That’s not him,’ Ryan said. ‘But then he just stopped. He said he didn’t want to go on. It got worse – more frequent. He truly believed none of it was real.’ 

Zane’s father, Ryan, who witnessed the fall, said his teenage son was just out of reach when he fell off the side of the cliff and there was nothing he could do to prevent the fall

Zane is nearly 5’9′ and in ‘peak physical condition’ having competed in triathlons, swimming, and distance running yet he succumbed to altitude sickness that saw him hallucinate 

Despite briefly seeming to recover, Zane’s mental state suddenly deteriorated, culminating in a series of alarming statements before he wandered off the trail and plummeted over the side of the steep granite cliff.

‘It was in the direction of the ledge. He thought it was right there, like the hike was over.

‘I wiped my eyes for a second, and when I looked up, he was already 10 feet away. I reached out – but I couldn’t get to him. And then he was gone.’

The fall left Zane with a traumatic brain injury and happened as the pair had begun their descent via the Mount Whitney Trail, hours after completing the technically demanding Mountaineer’s Route. 

The teen, who is nearly 5’9′ and in peak physical condition having competed in triathlons, swimming, and distance running. 

As his father put it: ‘He’s in better shape than I am.’

Zane had no history of mental health issues and had successfully hiked with his father before, but the combination of high altitude and physical stress appeared to push him into a dangerous dissociative state

The 14,505-foot peak of California’s Mount Whitney is the tallest peak in the continental US

After the fall, Ryan scrambled down the jagged terrain to reach Zane’s body, convinced his son had died on impact.

‘I didn’t see how there would be a way for him to survive it, so I screamed,’ he said. ‘I was yelling ‘No!’ I thought he was gone.’ 

But when he reached Zane’s body, miraculously there were still signs of life.

‘I rolled him over and he grunted. He was still breathing.’

An EMT who had passed by the pair earlier rushed to help, coordinating a rescue operation while Ryan remained with his unconscious son for a further six hours until a rescue helicopter arrived.

It took six hours before a team from Inyo County Search & Rescue arrived on the mountain

The helicopter was seen as it made its approach to rescue the injured teen

Zane was flown first to Southern Inyo Hospital in Lone Pine and then on to Sunrise Children’s Hospital in Las Vegas, the closest facility with a pediatric trauma unit.

Miraculously, doctors say his only other injuries were a broken ankle, a fractured finger, and a fractured section of his pelvis. 

‘Doctors said it’s miraculous,’ Ryan said. ‘It should have been so much worse.’

A GoFundMe campaign for Zane’s medical expenses has now raised $36,000.