Rangers Rescue, Ticket Climber

Tue., Aug. 16, 1994

Rangers at Crater Lake National Park rescued a California man who got hurt climbing down the steep face of the caldera surrounding the lake.

Then they gave him a ticket for being in a closed area.

Jeff Niese of Union City, Calif., was listed in satisfactory condition Monday in a Bend hospital recovering from a dislocated knee, as well as cuts and bruises.

Rangers spotted a friend of Niese’s late Sunday afternoon at the edge of the lake, in a place people aren’t supposed to be, said Chief Ranger George Buckingham.

When they reached the man, he told them Niese was stuck on the caldera wall, about 300 feet up. The caldera is the craterlike basin of a volcano.

Rangers had to rappel down the face of the ancient volcano, lower Niese to the lake, take him by boat to a trail, then haul him up to the top. It was nearly midnight when a helicopter from the 304th Air Rescue Squadron in Portland flew him to Bend.

Both Niese and his friend, Any Lacayo, also of Union City, were cited for entering a closed area, Buckingham said.

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