Emergency crews in northern California rescued a 16-year-old boy who took a tumble down a 50-foot-deep mine shaft while exploring the side of a mountain.
The teenage boy and his friends had poked inside a horizontal mine shaft roughly 180 feet into the side of a mountain last week, officials said. They rappelled approximately 40 to 50 feet down the vertical shaft using household ropes — but the lines weren’t nearly sturdy enough for the climb back up.
One rope broke and the 16-year-old plummeted about 30 feet to the bottom of the mine shaft. He attempted to free-climb his way back up but kept running out of strength or losing his grip, officials said.
The rescue team rushed to the teen’s rescue, equipped with a lightweight, complex rope system and air monitoring mechanism. They rappelled down to him and used a harness to hoist him back up to safety.
The teen was transported to a local trauma center for evaluation and treatment following his brief entrapment, officials said.
“This incident highlights the unique natural hazards ever-present within Placer County’s beautiful and rugged landscape,” county officials said.
Hidden mine shafts and sinkholes tend to reemerge in the most unfortunate ways, usually by swallowing up a clueless ambler.
In late December, a 40-by-40-foot sinkhole suddenly consumed a chunk of I-80 in New Jersey — just in time to make the post-Christmas and pre-New Year’s traffic even worse than usual.
The same month, a Pennsylvania grandma took a 30-foot nosedive into a sinkhole while searching for her lost cat. Her body was found inside the sinkhole, which opened up above an abandoned coal mine, after a multi-day search.
With Post wires.
