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March 4, 2005
Beatty climber rescued
By RICHARD STEPHENS
Fifteen-year-old Beatty resident Jacob Rogers may well owe his life to Hester's sharp hearing. Jacob had been entertaining himself in the Stagecoach arcade while his father, Tom, went for a beer. For some reason Jacob decided to look for something a little more exciting to do, like climbing the roughly 150-feet rock face on the other side of U.S. 95. The boy, who frequently goes climbing with his father, succeeded in scaling most of the nearly vertical rock, but became trapped about 30 feet from the top at the bottom of a wide crevice. With the cliff now overhanging him above and the rock crumbling and breaking loose beneath his feet when he tried to maneuver, Jacob froze in place, clinging to the face of the rock and calling for help. "I was really tired and cold and shaky," he said later. Hester called 911, and Nye County deputies responded, along with members of Beatty's volunteer fire and ambulance department. Taking a different route, off-duty deputy Frank Jarvis climbed to the top of the hill and maintained a conversation with Jacob to keep him calm and let him know that help was on its way. Firefighters used EMT Ian Hickinbotham's truck to haul themselves and equipment up the opposite side of the hill where there was at least some semblance of a four-wheel-drive road to the top. They then used the truck to anchor ropes for the rescue. With light failing as the sun set, and already chilly temperatures beginning to drop, EMT Hickinbotham, the lightest person on hand, was chosen to make the descent. It was Hickinbotham's first rappel, and Chief Jim Benshoof says he "did a great job." One of the dangers of the rescue was the condition of the rock itself. All the recent precipitation had added to the instability of the surface, and chunks of rock could be heard clattering down the face of the cliff whenever Jacob moved and when ropes were tossed over the cliff. Attaching lines to Hickinbotham's truck, firefighters first dropped a rope to Jacob, and he was able to grab it but felt his position was too insecure to try to place the rope around his body. Hickinbotham then rappelled on another rope to a position a few feet to the side of Jacob, before maneuvering over to him and securing him to a line. The two of them were then lowered together to safety. Jacob was all smiles as he was reunited with his father at the bottom of the hill. A quick check by ambulance service personnel determined he was uninjured and he was released to go home - perhaps a bit wiser about the dangers of solo climbing. Benshoof was pleased with the outcome of the rescue. "Luckily, it turned out OK," he said, but warned, "People who want to climb need to be prepared, know what they're doing, and have someone with them." |
