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Kelowna  

Teen rescued from cliff

Video by Trevor Rockliffe

A teen was rescued from the side of a cliff on Knox Mountain, Thursday afternoon.

The Kelowna fire department was called in at around 5:45 p.m. when witnesses said the teen became stuck on a ledge, about 20 metres from the ground. The cliff is at the bottom of the mountain by the park gate.

The teen says he and two friends started the climb, but his two buddies quit halfway up. He says he stopped when he started to slip.

"My friend was like, 'shall we climb it?' and I said we might as well try. I usually climb them at home so I thought it would be fine," says Florien Eswein who spent over 40 minutes perched on a small ridge of rock.

"I was climbing up, then there was a slippery spot and my friend was behind me and he told me to keep going, so I did and then I couldn't go down again."

The West Kelowna youth says he knows how lucky he was.

"It could have been worse," says Eswein looking back up the cliff.

To rescue Eswein the fire department backed a ladder truck to the bottom of the cliff. A member of the fire department then climbed the ladder to help the young man down.



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