Rogue wave traps 4 hikers, sets off scramble to save them

Stay calm. And stay warm.

Neil Peterson knew that was the only way that he, his two children and a family friend would escape the immense crevasse where they were swept Monday morning by a rogue wave. He repeated the mantra over and over, through several rounds of foiled escape plans and dashed hopes. He repeated it through the first hour of their ordeal, and he kept repeating it even as they reached hour nine.

"From a hypothermia standpoint and a psychological standpoint, it was a trick-and-a-half," said Peterson, of Seattle.

The group had set out Sunday for a weeklong hike on the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island. The trail, about 47 miles long, is as beautiful as it is rugged. There is no road access. And with parts of the trail hugging the ocean, hikers must time their forays to avoid the dangers of high tide. No matter the time of day, the waves crash explosively. The area is known as the Graveyard of the Pacific because of the ships that have sunk there.

"It's got an aura about it," said Peterson, 63, an adventurous spirit who founded Flexcar. "I've been trying to find people to go with me for years." He had rounded up his son Guy, 22, daughter Kelsey, 20, nephew Joe Ellis, and Ellis' friend Tim Kniffin for the expedition.

Monday morning, they set out at 4:30 a.m., carefully timing the tides. By 7, they had reached what they considered the easy part of the hike, where the tide was low and the ocean seemingly less dangerous. There, they could hike a safe distance from the water on a sandstone shore.

They soon came upon a surge channel, a gully about 50 yards long flanked by slick sandstone walls. Larger waves rush in and out of the channel, their force magnified as they push through the narrow entrance. Through the gully, massive trees are tossed like twigs.

One second they were on dry land and the next they were struggling to keep their heads above water.

"Five people and we never saw it," Peterson said of the wave that swept them in.

Only Ellis managed to avoid getting dragged into the channel. As the water receded, the four stranded hikers below climbed on top of stuck logs.

But immediately, they knew they were in trouble. They couldn't wade out because the water was 20 feet deep. They couldn't swim out because they risked being pulled out to sea by the receding waves. They couldn't climb up the walls. Their packs, their clothes and much of their equipment was drenched.

Ellis was their best hope. Setting off alone, he hiked three hours before finding an abandoned ranger's cabin stocked with lengths of rope.

As the group waited, Kelsey Peterson saw a glimmer of hope in a cavern that was connected to the gulley. Seeing light, she thought there might be a way to climb out. Guy explored the cavern and was stunned to find a waterfall, along with daylight.

"We were really excited," he said. Unfortunately, "we got in there and saw walls towering over with no way out."

By about 5 p.m., Ellis had returned with rope that allowed Guy and Kelsey Peterson to climb to safety. But the rope wasn't strong enough for the two larger men.

"We were pretty much at a roadblock," Guy said.

Then they heard helicopters and saw faint ripples in the water caused by the whirring blades. The U.S. and Canadian coast guards had come to the rescue after being called by other hikers whom Ellis had run across.

"They were phenomenal," Neil Peterson said of the rescuers.

As for future hikes, Neil and Guy Peterson said they want to give the West Coast Trail another try. Kelsey will be happy if she can get up the nerve to put her hiking boots on again.

"That will be enough," she said.

Maureen O'Hagan: 206-464-2562 or mohagan@seattletimes.com