It was like a scene out of a horror movie: two hikers, alone in the frigid wilderness with no cell reception, suddenly stumbled into a pool of quicksand.
On Saturday, Ryan Osmun, 34, and and Jessika McNeill from Arizona were about three hours into the Subway trail route in Utah’s Zion National Park when McNeill tripped, landing in quicksand. When Osmun tried to rescue her, he too became trapped and buried up to his knee.
“There was no chance of moving it at all,” Osmun told CBS News. “The sand had surrounded the whole leg, and I couldn’t move it.”
This Sunday, Feb. 17, 2019 photo provided by the National Park Service shows a creek where a hiker was rescued after being stuck in quicksand on Saturday, Feb. 16, 2019, in Zion National Park, Utah. The Zion Search and Rescue team took several hours, to locate the man who was stable but suffering from exposure, hypothermia, and extremity injuries. National Park Service via AP
Quicksand forms when water or air becomes trapped in sand. If exposed to a sudden shock or stress, like the weight of a hiker, it can become unstable. If something – like a limb – is submerged, it is incredibly hard to escape.
“Quicksand is not normally a problem at Zion, but it does happen if conditions are right,” said Alyssa Baltrus, a spokeswoman for the park. “We have been unusually wet here this winter. The weather was most likely a contributing factor.”
Ultimately, McNeill left Osman to go look for help, or at least for a cell signal so she could call 911. “It was the hardest thing I’ve had to do. Scariest thing, I didn’t even know if I would be able to do that hike by myself,” she told ABC News. “There was a couple times I thought I might as well just turn back, and we can just be together for the last moments.”
In this Sunday, Feb. 17, 2019 photo provided by the National Park Service. a rescued hiker is treated after being stuck in quicksand after getting stranded in a creek Saturday, Feb. 16, 2019, in Zion National Park, Utah. The Zion Search and Rescue team took several hours, to locate the man who was stable but suffering from exposure, hypothermia, and extremity injuries. National Park Service via AP
After hiking alone for hours, McNeill was able to call for help, and rangers located her close to the trailhead, according to Zion National Park. A search-and-rescue team immediately set out to look for Osmun, whom they found several hours later. He was not freed from the quicksand until late in the night, forcing rescuers to stay with him as temperatures plummeted and the park received another 4 inches of snow.
One of the rescuers who found Osmun told him he was lucky to be alive.
“He said, ‘I’ll be honest with you, you should be dead or unconscious right now,'” Osmun told ABC News.
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