ROCK BOTTOM

A HIKER SOMEHOW SURVIVED BEING PINNED IN A CREEK UNDER A 315-KILO BOULDER. THEN THE WATER STARTED TO RISE

- BY Eric Raskin

WHEN JOANNA ROOP heard a deep rumble overlaid with thunderous crashes, a sick feeling invaded the pit of her stomach. The horrible clatter of rocks and boulders stampeding down the hillside was emanating from the spot where her husband, Kell Morris, had been standing a minute earlier.

The pair, both 61 years old, had been hiking along Godwin Creek in Seward, Alaska, looking for a place to cross the water en route to their intended destination, Godwin Glacier. They had split up, and Morris had scaled some rocky terrain against the cliff while Roop walked downstream a bit. She'd made a mental note earlier of a potential crossing and was making her way back there when she heard the landslide about 300 feet behind her.

She ran as fast as she could, but she felt as if she was moving in slow motion. And to an extent she was—each step had to be deliberate as she traversed the rocks.

"Kell!" she hollered. "Kell!" She heard no reply over the rushing water. Roop was all but certain that her husband was gone, buried beneath a pile of rocks.

But there he was, along the edge of the water, with his distinctive brown fedora and blue backpack. Thank God.

Then Roop realized she could only see him from the shoulder blades up. Most of the rest of his body was pinned under a massive boulder shaped like a half-moon. Morris lay on his stomach, fully conscious, his face just barely out of the creek water.

He's gotta be crushed under there, Roop thought. But Morris was talking and did not seem to be in pain, even though his left boot pointed out from under the rock and up to the sky at a sickening angle. She assumed that his leg had been crushed.

Morris could move his right leg and his arms and could breathe fine. What he couldn't do was turn his head and see the enormity of the boulder that had trapped him.

"Just move it, Jo!" he called out.