A rising tide stranded a pair of teenagers Friday on the tidal flats off Kincaid Park, prompting a rescue effort by firefighters and Alaska State Troopers, according to the Anchorage Fire Department.
A witness said one of the young men swam to shore while a rescue boat plucked the other from Cook Inlet.
The scramble to find and save the teens began at about 3:45 p.m.
A caller told dispatchers that two people had been walking along the flats, in the direction of Fire Island, when the tide trapped them on an island or sandbar, said dispatch supervisor Andrew Good.
Troopers identified the walkers as Reinhold Tolbert, 16, and Austin Kipfer, 18. The pair had been hiking the mud flats for more than an hour and lost track of time, then realized they were in trouble, said trooper spokeswoman Beth Ipsen.
"They didn't really have any destination in mind. They were just walking on the mud flats," Ipsen said.
At some point, both Tolbert and Kipfer had tried swimming to safety, she said.
Witness Carl Battreall said one of the young men made it nearly all the way to the shore, where a rescue swimmer met him and helped him the rest of the way. But the other stranded hiker, later identified as Kipfer, had turned back and stayed on a shrinking area of land, Battreall said.
"He yelled at us that it was too cold, that he couldn't make it," Battreall said. The fire department launched at least one boat carrying rescuers, who loaded Kipfer in the boat and drove him to the shore, Battreall said.
A trooper helicopter flew to the scene about the same time the boat picked him up, Battreall said.
"It was down to the wire," he said.
By about 4:40 p.m., the teenagers were safe, Ipsen said.
The pair were cold but unhurt, she said.
Reach Casey Grove at casey.grove@adn.com or 257-4589.
By CASEY GROVE and KYLE HOPKINS
Anchorage Daily News