'He saved his life:' BYU student rescues rappeller at Bridal Veil Falls

PROVO CANYON — A BYU student who decided to spend Friday rappelling at Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon instead spent his morning rescuing another rappeller.

Zander Smith had arrived at the base of the waterfall about 9 a.m. when a group of men standing underneath a rope called him over and pointed out a rappeller who appeared to be stuck 80 feet up the mountain with his rope in a knot, he said.

“At that point, I could tell he was doing ok, but I could tell he was scared, he was nervous. So I grabbed my harness, helmet and rope,” he added.

Smith quickly ran up to the top of the falls while the others called emergency crews. When he reached the top, he attached his own rope and began to lower himself down — though it was difficult to see where he was going because of the overhangs, he said.

Once he reached the rappeller, he knew he had to work fast.

“I could tell he wasn’t shaking, so that made me nervous because at that point in hypothermia, it means your body is past the point of trying to heat you up. So I was immediately pretty concerned that he was in the later stages of hypothermia. He was very blue,” Smith said.

He quickly attached the rappeller to himself and began to try and untie the basketball-sized knot while asking the rappeller questions — where he was from, how many siblings he had — just to keep him cognizant and distracted, he said.

The rappeller was initially responding well, but after Smith had spent about 10 to 15 minutes trying to untie the knot, the rappeller stopped responding to Smith’s questions and began mumbling to himself and would yell if they swung on the rope.

At that point, Smith decided it was time to cut the rope and get the rappeller off the mountain since he appeared to be entering the late stages of hypothermia. Smith didn’t have a knife, so he yelled to one of the men at the bottom and told them to tie a knife to the rappellers rope so he could pull it up, then he double and triple checked his own harness and rope, he said.

“I said, ‘I’m about to cut this rope. We might swing a little bit. You’re attached to me.’ And I tried to point out where we were attached, just to try and calm him down,” Smith said. “At that point he just started responding more and he said, ‘I trust you. I trust you. I trust you.’ So I felt confident that it was probably the right time to cut the rope.”

After cutting the rope, Smith lowered himself and the rappeller down to the bottom where emergency crews had just reached the base with blankets. Utah County Sheriff Sgt. Spencer Cannon said the rappeller is with emergency crews now and should make a full recovery.

“(Smith) saved his life. There’s no doubt in my mind that he saved his life,” Cannon said, adding that, in water, the body loses temperature 24 times faster than when in air.

For Smith, he’s just glad he was in the right place at the right time — with the right experience and equipment. The BYU student, who is originally from Montana, said he has rappelling and rock climbing experience and even worked with search and rescue teams in his native state.

“I was thinking I better start keeping a rope and harness in my car because it was such a strange happenstance for me to get up there right when he needed it most,” he said. “It’s just really important that people are prepared, and, if you have those skills, that you’re prepared to help when the time comes.”

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