Indian-origin teen climber from Canada miraculously survives 500-feet fall from US peak

A
16-year-old Indian-origin mountain climber from Canada miraculously survived a
500-feet fall from the 11,240 feet Mount Hood, the highest summit in coastal US
state Oregon.

Gurbaz Singh
from Surrey was ascending the peak with friends on Tuesday marking his 90th
mountain climb when he lost his footing on ice and fell from a section of the
mountain known as The Pearly Gates to the Devil’s Kitchen area below, sources reported.

Gurbaz survived the dangerous fall, suffering only a broken leg.

A team of
search-and-rescue coordinators hiked up to the injured climber, who was
stranded at an elevation of about 10,500 feet. Due to the location and
elevation, the rescue operation took several hours.

Mount Hood
is the highest summit in Oregon and the most-visited snow-covered peak in the
nation, according to the US Forest Service. More than 10,000 people make the
climb each year, according to officials.

“He thought
he was going to stop somewhere, and he was trying to arrest the fall with his
ax, but it just didn’t happen because he was rolling so fast that he couldn’t
do it,” Gurbaz’s father Rishamdeep Singh told sources.

The teen who
underwent a surgery in a hospital in Portland credits his training and wearing
a helmet as reasons why his injuries weren’t more severe.

Rescuers
located Gurbaz and managed to splint his leg, then began the slow descent down
the mountain four hours after his initial fall.

The father
said once Gurbaz is fully healed he and his son plan on going back to Mount
Hood and will be chasing the climb together.