REDWATER, Alta. — A woman who spent hours clinging to the sides of a well she had fallen into near Edmonton says she honestly thought she was going to die.
Trieva McBeth plunged more than two metres into the grass-covered, abandoned well while she was walking her dog near Redwater on Monday.
McBeth was partially submerged in murky water and for four hours tried to clamber up the well's sheer sides as she screamed for help, hoping that someone would hear her.
But no one did, and dark storm clouds were starting to gather above her.
She knew she had to get out before it started to pour.
She eventually managed to pull herself up with a nylon rope she spied tethered to a cement block at the top of the well.
“I couldn’t get a grip with my feet and I'd just slip right back down,” she said of her failed attempts to scramble out.
The rope wasn't much easier.
“It was as tall as my hands could reach. I could never do that in gym. I could never do a pullup.”
McBeth persevered and was able to pull herself to freedom.
She hopes the well gets covered up so nobody else gets hurt. Sturgeon County, where the property is located, says it is trying to contact the landowner.
McBeth has a sprained ankle, banged-up knees and scrapes and bruises.
Her dog hasn't left her side, she said.
