Hiking this Weekend: Part 2

Jun Hyeon, Hyeon Su, and Mr. Bak

I have no idea how to start this story. It's taken me hours to get this far--just writing the first sentence. What happened yesterday will no doubt remain forever vivid in my mind. Yesterday I rescued two hypothermic people from the freezing waters of a mountain stream--Mr. Bak and his 9 year old son Jun Hyeon.


This is where we had been hiking: the famous heart rock near Mung Yeoung. (All photos were obviously taken long before the accident occurred.) The stream has formed a small waterfall (maybe 20 feet tall) that over time has hollowed out the rock it once flowed over to create a heart shaped pool below it which must have been at least 10 feet deep. Then, spilling over, the rushing water has hollowed out a second pool below the first, perhaps another 10 feet deep or so; both pools having sheer sides and slippery granite rock under the water. While it was possible to climb down to the pools' edge, it was incredibly difficult as well because of the sheer angle of the rocks and thus we tried to stay away from the rocks' edge.

Well, how things started: we were sitting above the water fall on a big rock, enjoying a picnic, when Hyeon Su discovered some frog eggs a little farther up stream. I had busied myself watching Jun Hyeon playing in the water but at Mr. Bak's incessant urging, turned away to follow him and his son to look at the frog eggs. I kept looking back at Jun Hyeon, just to keep an eye on him, but eventually got a little preoccupied. Unfortunately, I was the only one that had been watching the boy. Little more than a minute had passed since I last checked on the boy, when I noticed that I couldn't hear him playing in the water anymore. I turned around to look for him and couldn't see him either. That's when I heard his faint cries and I knew instantly what had happened: he fell down the waterfall and into the hollow pool below.

Screaming, I caught Mr. Bak's attention, who began screaming himself as he ran through the water to the other side of the water fall (the left in the photo above). Meanwhile, I ran to the top of the rocks and saw Jun Hyeon treading water below the waterfall in the first pool, screaming and crying for his father. And that's when Mr. Bak fell in. Of course he was only thinking about his son (I probably would have done the same thing) but he panicked and didn't stop to think about the best way to reach him, and consequently ran down the wrong side of the water fall where the rocks were covered in moss and wet leaves with no easy access to the water's edge, and I watched him fall on the rocks, busting up the camera around his neck, plummeting into the pool less than a foot away from his son. Now they were both in the water and screaming for help. The rock walls were too steep to climb out of and the rocks were to wet and slippery to pull themselves out on. The only people left to help were me and Mr. Bak's other son, Hyeon Su.

I quickly took off my purse and set it on the ground along with my phone just in case I fell in, and hurriedly slid my way down the rocks on the right side of the pool so that I could help pull them out. As you can see in the pictures above and below, the first pool narrowed at a point where it gradually spilled into the second pool below--this was the only accessible place to pull them out. Once I got down there Mr. Bak pulled his son to the water's edge and pushed while I pulled his son out. However, in the meantime, his son's foot got wedged between some rocks and he was stuck halfway in the water. Mr. Bak began to panic and I'm not quite sure what he did or why he did it, but before I knew it he was trying to climb out over his son and fell forward into the second pool--a much more dangerous place to be. Focusing on the crying and screaming boy in my arms, I straddled the stream, reached down into the water, and yanked his foot free, pushing his legs and butt up the rocks as I tried to get him out of the water. But he was crying so hard and was shaking uncontrollably--obviously in shock--and couldn't move; I couldn't get him to climb up the rocks and to safety with me. He was much to scared. It didn't help that he barely spoke English and I barely spoke Korean. Meanwhile, Mr. Bak was floating in the second pool below, screaming, "Help, Kortney!" while I screamed back, "Swim dammit! Swim!" and the other son, Hyeon Su, watched from the trail above the stream, screaming and crying along with the rest of us. I was so sure these two were going to die. The boy had been in the water for about 6 minutes or so and was already hypothermic and there was no clear way to get the father out either: the second pool had a shallow shelf that under the water that prevented me from getting closer to Mr. Bak and prevented him from climbing out (there was no gradual tapering off of shelf--it was a clean drop to the bottom of the pool and the granite rock was slicker than snot).

I started to panic myself as I realized how precarious the situation had become. I started to cry myself which only made things worse as the shaking boy in my arms sobbed even harder, the boy on the hill began screaming and crying "Abochi!" ("Father!"), and the father looked at me with helpless eyes. I felt like it was over. I felt like there was nothing I could do. I kept yelling at Mr. Bak to take off the backpack he was wearing so that he could swim better and climb out but he either didn't understand what I said in English or he didn't see the wisdom in my pleas. The situation was beyond out of control and was teetering on the edge of perilous; by now Mr. Bak had been in the water about 8 or 10 minutes--much too long for water at that temperature. Growing up in the NW and being familiar with the dangers of hypothermia, I knew that he didn't have time.

So I pulled myself together. This was no time to lose it. The more upset I got, the less useful I was and the more upset both kids got. I took off my sopping shoes and socks and started crawling my way up the rocks. When I got to the top, I grabbed my cell phone and ran down the trail to where the Hyeon Su was crying and I shoved the phone in his hands, motioning like I was making a phone call, and said, "Call help! Call help! Okay? Call help!" and I ran down the trail a little farther to where I could climb out onto the rocks at the bottom of the second pool. But my jeans were soaked and were starting to get wrapped around my legs, so in a moment of clarity, I took them off, thinking, "If I don't I'm definitely going to fall in, and if I fall in, I definitely won't be able to swim with them on." Then I ran to the rock's edge and tried to reach Mr. Bak but he couldn't reach me, and I had no leverage to keep myself on dry ground. This is where I panicked a second time and started screaming for God to help me, to show me what to do. And then I remembered what probably saved his life: there was a rope strung along the trail above and I could use that to pull him in. So I ran up the trail once more, struggling to keep my balance on the edge of the rocks, and started trying to un-knot the old ropes. I kept glancing back at Mr. Bak who's breathing had slowed dramatically, was taking longer blinks, was moving less, and remained unresponsive every time time I asked him a question. I thought I would lose him. Unfortunately the rope was knotted around several trees and tied to several other ropes. This made it impossible for me to drag the rope to good place for pulling him out; the rope wouldn't reach beyond the steepest face of the rocks on the right side. However, it did reach Mr. Bak in the water and he was at least able to pull his upper half out, getting his heart above and out of the icy water--a very good sign, though he screamed with pain as he did so. By this time, he had been in the water somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes but I figured that as long as he could hold himself halfway out, he had at least another 5 minutes, and I needed to turn my attention to Jun Hyeon, the boy I pulled out earlier.

Carefully running over to where he sat curled up on the rocks by the water's edge, I started telling him to take off his clothes. Everything he was wearing was made of cotton and as you know, cotton kills. So I started taking off his clothes and putting my own (which were dry) on him. His father kept saying, "It's okay! Just follow directions!" which gave me even more hope because he was finally talking. And just as I got Jun Hyeon's coat and three shirts off, that's when our much needed help arrived: a group of hikers had just walked out of the woods above the waterfall and heard our screams. They were able to pull Mr. Bak the rest of the way out of the water and swing the rope over to where the boy and I were perched. The boy was still hysterical and screaming but at least there was someone else there to help. By myself, I just couldn't get him to move. So I flipped him over on his stomach and said, "Okay! We need to climb! Let's go! Climb, okay?" And I pushed his butt up the rocks to within reach of several hikers who grabbed his hands, put the rope in them, and guided him up the rock wall.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bak was just reaching the trail and I crawled my way up the wall to reach him where he just grabbed me in the tightest hug imaginable, saying, "Thank you, thank you," between gasps of air. When he finally let go, so did I. I was crying so hard I could hardly put my pants back on. (I'm sure that I'll have to explain later why I took my pants off--the Korean hikers were looking at me a little funny.)

I grabbed the other son, Hyeon Su, who was sobbing on the side of the trail, and led him up the hill to the top of the waterfall where the hikers had started a fire and set Jun Hyeon and Mr. Bak by it to warm up. There were lots of questions and frantic chatter going around along with my phone which was ringing like mad with Koreans on the other end (I didn't even bother answering--I'd just pass it to a hiker every time it rang). I kept hearing my name over and over as Mr. Bak explained what happened at the Koreans just stared at me with a curious fascination. I can't imagine how things looked to them. I was without pants and close to losing my shirt when they showed up, running around with no shoes or socks, bouncing back and forth between my own bouts of hysteria (I was so over whelmed!) and perfect sanity. And then every once in a while Mr. Bak would reach out, grab my hand and refuse to let go, saying, "Thank you," and "I'm sorry." But I was sorely unimpressed with the Koreans. For all their hyped-up hiking gear, they generally have absolutely no clue what to do in emergencies. I kept telling them that they needed to get Jun Hyeon out of his socks and shoes because they would continue to keep him cold but no one would listen. And Mr. Bak needed to get out of his wet clothes too but it was hopeless communicating that, so I just sat there, watching and praying that the situation wouldn't worsen.

Lucky for us, there was road access above the waterfall and before long an ambulance came rumbling through the woods. The EMT's loaded us up and all four of us were soon headed back to the emergency room in Jeomchon. On the way, Jun Hyeon was wrapped up in several blankets and the EMT helped me get his clothes off (I'm so glad someone knew what they were doing!), but the EMT seemed a little careless when she allowed Mr. Bak to drift off asleep on the ambulance bench. Oh well. It was their show at this point and if he was going to drift off into a coma, at least it would be their problem.

Once we arrived at the hospital, they were rushed into the emergency room, had hot water bottles shoved under their arms and were smothered in blankets. A lot of poking commenced as well. They figured that the boy broke his skull just between his left eye and temple during the fall and I suspect that maybe his foot is broke too from me pulling it out of that rock trap. They were taking him in for x rays or a CAT scan just as I left but it sounds like everything is fine. Later that night Mr. Bak called me from the hospital to tell me he was sorry and thank you (again) and to let his son Jun Hyeon talk to me too--he said he was fine, that he didn't know if he had any broken bones (or else the "I don't know" meant "I don't understand English..." One or the other...) and that they were still in the hospital.

Hopefully they can go home today but in typical Korean fashion, I'm sure that they'll be there for a while. Koreans over medicate and over react about every medical dilemma. They tried to make me stay too and kept taking my temperature despite my insistence that I was fine. And so I went home and tried to decompress. Courtney came over and we shared a couple cups of tea while talking about what happened. Then I grabbed about an hour of sleep before the construction workers outside my window woke me up. I had such a bad headache and my body hurt so much from running around all day. It's funny how you don't notice all the things your body goes through in the face of an emergency. Later, while watching tv, I noticed that I had torn all the skin off the ball of my foot and had several rocks lodged in there. I didn't feel a thing. I had no idea that happened. I talked with another friend on the phone for a while which made me feel a lot better and I fell asleep again for about four hours. I woke up a couple more times in the night, called my mom, called my sister, and ate a little food, but I'm feeling really good now. I think I slept about 12 hours in total yesterday/last night.

In retrospect, everything seems so surreal. I can't believe that we found ourselves in that situation and actually made it out. I'm surprised by myself, that I actually pulled off all that I did and managed not to seriously hurt myself in the process. But mostly I'm grateful. I'm so grateful that everyone made it out okay. I can't tell you how many times I started crying because I realized that I almost witnessed a father and son die together and how tragic that would have been for the second son who was watching the whole time. So many things went wrong and so many things went right at the same time. The whole time I was running around I just kept praying, "God, don't let these people die! Show me what to do! Keep my mind clear so I can do what you need me to do!" I'm so glad that He heard my prayer. I'm so glad that rope was there and that I knew to grab it. I'm so glad those hikers showed up and were able to get everyone back to safety. Things could have easily gone the other way but they didn't. I don't know how I would have made it through if they had. But the most eye opening moment of all was sitting there in the emergency room and seeing Mr. Bak's wife (a teacher from my girl's school) walk in, wide eyed and worried, hugging her family and then hugging me as well. Their family is still together because of what I did, because so many things went right.

Anyway, I don't have much left to say. It's enough that I was actually able to write this out. ...Some 8 hours later... But I think this may be my greatest memory from Korea.

Hopefully I'll have more good news to share with you soon as the aftermath of our adventure unravels.