Two Teenagers Rescued After Spending Three Nights On Cliff Boys Lowered Several Hundred Feet To Safety In Columbia River Gorge

Two teenage boys stranded above a waterfall for three nights on the snowy slopes of the Columbia River Gorge were lowered by rope several hundred feet to safety Tuesday.

Rob Walsh, 16, of Portland and Seth Kelsey, 15, of Brush Prairie, Wash., were stranded on a cliff above an 80-foot waterfall in a narrow, steep canyon.

Two Air Force Reserve rescue jumpers dropped into the site from a helicopter just as the sun went down Monday and spent the night with the boys. At dawn, the rescuers tied the boys to rope and, in a journey that took seven hours, brought them over the waterfall and down the steep, slick creek bed to safety.

“It was great,” Seth said. “They had us all harnessed up. I felt completely safe. I had no worries at all about falling.”

The boys were dropped off at a trailhead about 50 miles east of Portland on Saturday for what was to have been an overnight trek to a lake in the high country above the gorge. Seth had taken the trip twice before, but never in snow.

This time they found themselves in 4 feet of snow. They gave up their plans and turned back, but lost their way. They followed a contour map, but mistook how steep the slopes were as they walked along Gorton Creek, one of many streams that cascade down the nearly vertical gorge.

“We were trekking across the snow and we veered too far left and we basically headed ourselves down into a canyon,” Seth said.

Finally, on Sunday afternoon, they decided they could go no farther.

“We just reached muscle exhaustion,” Seth said, “and we decided we’d better sit here and wait.”

It was a good decision, since they unknowingly were just above the 80-foot waterfall.

“The contour map doesn’t show a waterfall, which is interesting,” Rob said.

The terrain was too steep for them to climb back the way they came. On Sunday, they moved their tent down a few feet to an open area.

“We set up camp where it was flat and spread out the blue tarp so they could see us,” Rob said.

But it was the bright orange tent that ground searchers spotted late Monday afternoon, and the boys waved at a passing search aircraft.

Just as darkness fell, Staff Sgts. Steve Johnson and Keith Berry were lowered by rope from a helicopter.

“I think they were ready to go right then,” Johnson said. “They were packing up their gear.”

But rescuers decided it was too risky to try to lift the boys into the helicopter.

“Just the hoist itself probably would have been more dangerous than walking out,” Berry said.

In the morning, the four started down and soon were met by a third Air Force Reserve rescuer who climbed up from below.

At the Wyeth campground at the foot of the narrow canyon, the boys’ parents waited, relieved to finally know the teens, both sophomores at Portland’s Oregon Episcopal School, were all right.

“They’re the kind of kids who don’t get in trouble. They get good grades,” said Rob’s father, Dr. Eric Walsh. “We’re blessed. This kind of thing makes you realize you don’t take enough time in your life for the ones you love.”

When they reached safety, the boys hugged their parents.

“The first thing I wanted to do is tell my mom and my parents I was OK,” Seth said.

Rob also was anxious to see his parents. But he had another, overriding desire. “I wanted hot chocolate,” he said.