Anaheim : Deputies Rescue Boy, 14, After Plunge Off Cliff

San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies rescued a 14-year-old Anaheim boy who fell 25 feet off a cliff Saturday night while on a camping trip, breaking his right leg and left ankle.

Sean Smith, a Katella High School freshman, was on a Boy Scout camping trip when he and fellow Scout Mark Vigil went climbing beside a waterfall in snow-covered mountains near Lytle Creek, north of Fontana, according to a sheriff’s spokesman. Smith, recovering at Kaiser Hospital in Anaheim Monday, said he remembers only the climb and then waking up in the snow several hours later.

“I don’t know where I fell or how I landed or anything else,” he said. After the fall, Vigil ran back to camp and returned with Smith’s father, John, who cared for his son during the night, clearing away snow and covering him with a sleeping bag as much as possible without moving the youth.

The sheriff’s rescue team arrived shortly before midnight, set the boy’s legs but waited until morning to transport him out by gurney because of darkness. Smith said he expects to be able to move around again in about six weeks.