A man out hiking spent nearly 24 hours stranded at Racehorse Falls northeast of Deming after getting trapped between the upper and lower falls until Whatcom County Fire District 14 got him out with a technical rescue.
“He wasn’t hurt or anything — just a little exposure and dehydration,” District 14 chief Jerry Debruin told The Bellingham Herald. “But he spent the night out there and said it got pretty dark and pretty cold. He was thankful to get out of there.”
District 14 was called to Racehorse Falls at 10:02 a.m. Wednesday, June 26 for the report of the stranded hiker.
Debruin told the Herald that on Tuesday morning, June 25, the hiker used a rope that is left near the falls to climb down below the upper falls — an approximately 100-foot, nearly vertical drop. When he attempted to climb back out, the rope broke, leaving him stranded between the upper falls and the approximately 50-foot lower falls.