Canoe capsized and left a mom and two boys stranded—the woman had to make a 'difficult' decision that saved their lives
Sometimes a person has to make some difficult decisions to protect themselves and the people around them. A mom had to make such a decision as she left her teen son and his friend in an underwater cave to seek help after their canoe capsized, leaving them stranded in an underwater cave system. It all started when the woman, Kate, took her 15-year-old son Draigen and his friend, Josh, on a trip through the underground slate mine system near Blaenau Ffestiniog in Gwynedd. But then their canoe capsized on a cold, subterranean lake, per the BBC.
"It's the scariest thing that has ever happened to me in my life, ever," Josh recounted. "I've always been interested in mountains and trying to get really good experiences with my children. Doing something like that is really wholesome and it just builds so many skills," Kate pointed out. So visiting a cave system located 130m down seemed like a good summer activity for the teens. Everything was going fine and the group had all the tools needed for a successful trip, including zip lines and a boat to go through the frozen lake. They eventually reached the lake at some point and then things went wrong.
"There was just a rope hanging in the water, so me and Josh just started pulling this rope and there was a canoe on the end of this rope," Draigen recalled. Kate used the canoe to cross the lake first to make sure that it was safe. Josh went in next, but when it was Draigen's turn, the boat capsized. "I just stood in the wrong spot. It just sank." The teen was stuck waist-deep in freezing waters after that. "I was panicking - I was struggling to climb back out. All the rock was crumbling off the wall. I was in the water for about a minute. It was freezing cold." The teen managed to get out somehow by climbing on a rock, but now he was stuck on the other side of the lake.
The mom managed to get a survival bag to her son so he wouldn't suffer because of being in the cold water and as there was no phone signal, she had to leave to get emergency help. "That was one of the most difficult decisions I have probably made, I would say, in my lifetime. I knew how scary that was going to be for them." It took Kate around two and a half hours to get out and ask the authorities for help. Aberglaslyn Mountain Rescue Team, above ground and North Wales Cave Rescue Organisation volunteers, went in to get the two teens to safety and it took four hours in total for them to get there from the moment Kate left. The teens were safe, but cold because of being so close to a freezing lake.
Draigen and Josh were relieved to get out as the team handed Draigen warm clothes and a flask with hot chocolate. They asked if Kate was okay and were glad to be reunited with her. "We were hoping that they'd stay... but they did. They did exactly what they were meant to do," Dave Evans from Aberglaslyn Mountain Rescue Team, remarked. Kate was "proud" of both of them and the rescue teams highlighted the importance of being prepared during emergency situations after the incident happened.