Quote from Oladosun Joshua Segun on June 30, 2025, 8:06 PM

Although Ryan Wach is still unsure of the exact reason behind his 14-year-old son Zane Wach's decision to go off a cliff, he hopes the youngster will soon be able to share his story.

On June 10, while hiking Mount Whitney in California, the teen fell over a 120-foot trail ledge due to altitude sickness, according to his relatives. Since being saved, the teenager has been in a coma, but his father revealed that he is now breathing on his own after being removed from a ventilator.

"We are still in the middle of it right now, but it is going to be a survival story in the end," Ryan revealed to SFGATE on June 25.

When the boy became unwell, Ryan and Zane, who his father described as an athletic child who enjoys hiking and participating in triathlons, swimming, and distance running, had already reached the top of the 14,505-foot peak via the Mountaineer's Route.

Following their arrival at the peak, Zane began to exhibit symptoms of altitude sickness and reportedly had a paranormal vision involving imaginary characters.

Ryan clarified, "He started to suffer some hallucinations." "He knew he was hallucinating. He said he saw Kermit the Frog and snowmen."

His father added that Zane appeared to feel better after they returned to the Trail Camp at Mount Whitney. However, at about 10,000 feet, the teenager began to feel lost once more after descending for another hour.

“He was in an altered mental state, and I don’t know what caused it. We still don’t know,” Ryan stated. “My best guess is a combination of exhaustion, sleep deprivation, probably some dehydration and lasting effects from the altitude sickness. But he essentially started to doubt reality.”

Ryan went on to say that Zane believed they had already completed their hike several times, "like he was no longer present."

“It was completely bizarre,” he also said. “He told me he couldn’t tell if he was dreaming or not, and he would shake his head in disbelief, like, ‘This is not real.’ Like he was in the movie Inception or something.”

Then the worst horror a father may have: As Ryan told NBC affiliate KSNV, "I heard steps to my right," Zane "was walking off the ledge."

While a group of hikers nearby realized they were witnessing a fellow climber in distress and called for assistance, he managed to catch Zane just before he went over the side of the steep granite slope. Ryan told SFGATE that Zane told his father he was heading to the car, which was thousands of feet down the trail, and that when he had to catch hold of his son again, he was heading to dinner.

"I was kind of losing my mind, in a way, because I was so scared and frustrated,” Ryan went on. “I had to wipe away tears. I was holding my hands to my eyes, and he walked off again. This time, I didn’t hear it until he was about at the edge, and when I went to reach for him, he was 10 feet away from me. I couldn’t get him, and he walked off the edge.”

“A companion hiker was an EMT who coordinated the rescue attempt, but they still had to wait six hours for an Inyo County Search & Rescue aircraft to get there and fly Zane to Southern Inyo Hospital in Lone Pine.” Ryan estimated that Zane fell around 120 feet down the slope.

The teenager was transported to Sunrise Children's Hospital in Las Vegas, the nearest hospital with a pediatric trauma center, some 230 miles away once he was stabilized.

Doctors informed Zane's family that it was "fairly miraculous" he was unharmed, but Ryan stated that the teenager's injuries were considerably worse: in addition to brain damage, he also has a fractured pelvis and broken ankle and finger.

However, according to a June 26 Facebook update uploaded to Zane's grandma Lisa Hinrichsen-Wach's account, he is now breathing on his own after being put in a medically induced coma, per People.

"I'll be brief today as it was a big day but very hard," Ryan expressed. "Zane had the breathing tube removed... This was a giant milestone and opens the door to many new steps forward. He's not doing much else at the moment; the largest focus is watching closely so that he does well breathing on his own as well and being able to cough and swallow."

The youngster was "well into feeling the effects of withdrawal" from the powerful medicines he had been given at the hospital, Ryan observed, describing the process as "extremely hard and painful."

He went on. "As parents it's terrible to watch." "We hope he gets through this with the least possible suffering."

However, Ryan is confident that his kid will triumph over this obstacle because he has witnessed his remarkable accomplishments.

Ryan informed KSNV. "He is a straight-A student. He is involved with the church." "He is just an all-around great kid. Could not even ask for a kid this good. I am lucky to be his father."