What should’ve been a beautiful memory between father and son—descending together after summiting Mount Whitney—has instead been replaced by a single, searing image that will haunt Ryan Wach for the rest of his life: his 14-year-old son, dazed and muttering nonsense, walking straight off a 120-foot cliff while Ryan screamed and lunged, helpless to stop it.
Zane, a Santa Clarita native with no history of mental illness and in excellent physical condition, suddenly began acting strange as they began their descent, stopping and staring into the distance.
“He told me he didn’t know if he was dreaming,” Ryan said. “He kept saying we’d already finished the hike. That none of this was real.”
