Mom on phone with daughter as 18-year-old falls off cliff in Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A teenager was on the phone with her mother when the 18-year-old slipped down a 10-metre slope while hiking an Alaska mountain.

Mother Shelly LaGrou said Tuesday that she heard daughter Cherelle LaGrou scream and then the line go silent.

She waited, roughly 2,400 kilometres away in Washington state, to hear her daughter’s voice again.

She tried to keep her daughter calm Sunday while her husband frantically called the teen’s employer, who alerted Alaska State Troopers.

Cherelle LaGrou’s rescue took 45 minutes and was captured by National Geographic Channel reality show “Alaska State Troopers.” It’s expected to air this fall.

The teen, who is working in Alaska this summer, says that before her rescue, she thought she was staring death in the face. Instead, she sustained only minor scratches.