18-year-old fell at WA waterfall over week ago. Rescuers still can’t reach body

OLYMPIA – Rescuers haven’t been able to reach the body of an 18-year-old man who died over a week ago at a popular Washington waterfall, rangers said.

Recovery efforts for the man’s body at Sol Duc Falls in the Olympic National Park have been paused, the National Park Service said in a June 17 news release.

He fell June 8 after he was last seen walking across slippery rocks at the top of the 50-foot waterfall, McClatchy News reported from park officials.

The park visitor lost his footing and fell to the bottom of the falls, park rangers said.

A body was spotted the next day “completely submerged” and “pinned between the first and second falls,” rangers said.

Rangers said they believe it belongs to the man.

But recovery teams have faced challenges in trying to retrieve the body, park officials said.

Rescuers have been lowered into the narrow canyon to reach him but couldn’t do so because of “high river flows” from snow melt, rangers said.

Since they can’t get to his body, rangers said they will monitor the area and try to recover him when conditions are safe.

The hike to Sol Duc Falls is 1.6 miles round trip with an elevation gain of about 200 feet, according to the Washington Trails Association.

“Depending on water volume, Sol Duc Falls splits into as many as four channels as it cascades 48 feet into a narrow, rocky canyon,” the association says.