A group of tourists was involved in a dramatic rescue operation in Montana’s Glacier National Park on Sunday, July 6.
According to a press release from the National Park Service, four visitors from Florida were attempting to take a photo together on a cliff above Avalanche Creek, one of the park’s most famous natural features.
Avalanche Creek through a narrow, rugged gorge, surrounded by mossy rock walls around 30 feet high.
The release stated that “one individual slipped and fell into the water, a second and third person trying to help also fell in.” One of the fallen tourists was able to grab onto tree branches near the water, but the other two were sucked downstream, through the jagged gorge. By the time these two came out at the far end, they were in cardiac arrest—they had technically drowned.
A bystander, Mike Skidmore, who was visiting with his family, told local news station KPAX that he helped rescue the visitors.
“I saw up above my brother talking to a young gal, and could tell he suddenly had a look of fear or like something needed to happen right away,” Skidmore said. “He yelled down and said, ‘Hey, there’s people in the water down there, let’s go help them.’”
Skidmore told the outlet that he and two family members jumped into the frigid, chest-high water to try to find the two individuals and pull them out. After a bit of searching, they found both completely submerged beneath the water.
Skidmore, a dentist, and his brother, a doctor, are both certified in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). They were able to pull the bodies—a husband and wife—to shore with help from the nephew and other bystanders, and began chest compressions, saving the lives of both victims.
“The wife responded to CPR probably within the first minute, started coughing and some you know kind of guttural breaths, so she was almost partly revived by the time we got her husband up on the shore,” Skidmore said. “It took a few minutes, probably three to five minutes of CPR to get him going.”
By the time first responders arrived, Skidmore and his brother had already succeeded in reviving both individuals, but the third person, who had grabbed onto the tree branches to avoid being sucked downstream, was still trapped in the gorge. A ranger rappelled down the cliff to the individual to secure him, before a “technical rescue team was assembled and retrieved both the individual and the ranger.”
According to NPS, the three patients were then transported to a nearby hospital, by a combination of several local first responder teams: ALERT, Three Rivers Ambulance, and the Whitefish Fire Department. According to the park service, all are in stable condition.
In the release, the park service reminded visitors to “watch their surroundings near water. Swift, cold glacial streams and rivers, slick rocks or slippery logs all present dangers. Never walk, play, or climb on slippery rocks and logs, especially around waterfalls. Drowning is the number one cause of death among tourists visiting Glacier National Park. Since the park opened in 1910, at least five people have been killed after falling into the Avalanche Creek gorge.
