After reaching the summit of the majestic Mount Whitney and starting back down, 14-year-old Zane Wach, who was suffering from extreme exhaustion, became disoriented and fell 150 feet as his father watched the scene play out, unable to catch his son from his sudden and uncontrollable descent.

The well-liked Santa Clarita teen is recovering from the June 10 accident in a Las Vegas hospital, and while his broken bones can be healed, Zane faces a traumatic brain injury from the fall that left him on the side of the mountain for six hours before rescuers reached him.

His dad, Ryan Wach, managed to climb down to his son and hold him as the two waited for help.

Ryan Wach was not available for comment, but he has posted frequent updates about what happened and how Zane is progressing on a GoFundMe page monitored by their neighbor, Heather Riggen.

“He’s a great kid, he’s a great athlete, he’s super responsible, he’s a great community member,” said Riggen, a coach for the Old Orchard II Sharks swim team, a community program in Santa Clarita. “He does a lot of volunteering, he’s active in his church, he’s a junior coach on the swim team and is a role model for all the kids.”

She said the Wach family is concentrating on hope, resiliency and the power of the Santa Clarita community, rallying around their son and brother to three younger siblings.

“We are praying for him and have been praying for him; their family is rooted in their faith and they got that and are learning into that right now,” Riggen said.

“The outpouring of love, fasting, prayers, gatherings, and messages in support of Zane and our family has been touching, heartwarming, and humbling beyond words” Ryan Wach wrote on the GoFundMe page. “Zane is a special kid and to see how loved he is by so many is incredible and has brought us tears of comfort multiple times in the past couple days.”

The elder Wach said they climbed up the Mountaineer’s Route on Mount Whitney, a challenging ascent that involves gaining 6,200 vertical feet from the trailhead to the summit — a route over snow and ice and very steep terrain.

Zane exhibited grit, courage, trust and toughness that his dad hadn’t seen in any other young teenager. “He did what few people his age, or any age, could or would ever try to do,” Wach wrote. “He’s not done being awesome, as he’ll show everyone as he pulls through this with everyone’s help.”

Noah McWilliams, the head coach for the Sharks swim team who has known the younger Wach for three years, described Zane, a freestyle swimmer who volunteers his time with the team, as a one of the best junior coaches.

“He would do everything without being told, he was always willing to help out and stay longer if we needed him to,” said McWilliams, adding Zane has won many freestyle swimming events with the Sharks team and is headed to Hart High School as a freshman this fall.

McWilliams said the team loves Zane and looks up to him as a role model for the younger children.

“At (our) social events, he (attended) every single one of them and he didn’t need to; he is always there supporting the kids,” he added.

For more information, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-zanes-family-through-tough-times