La Center man dies after 180-foot fall near Swift Reservoir

A La Center man died Sunday evening after he apparently climbed over a guardrail near Swift Reservoir and fell 180 feet.

Witnesses called 911 at about 8:45 p.m. to report that their friend, Bradlee Byfield, 26, of La Center had climbed over the guardrail to get to a ledge and that they couldn’t find him, Skamania County Undersheriff Pat Bond said.

Deputies and members of the North Country Emergency Medical Service and Volcano Rescue Team responded to the scene, on U.S. Forest Service Road 90 about 6 miles east of Cougar, Bond said.

People at the scene told crews that Byfield may have slipped and grabbed a branch to steady himself, but the branch broke, Bond said. Nobody could see Byfield after he fell, Bond said, because it was “a sheer drop” into the reservoir.

Crews used a rope system to rappel the cliff and found Byfield deceased about 180 feet down, Bond said. Responders retrieved his body and brought it back to the roadway by 12:30 a.m. Monday, he said.

Byfield’s body was taken by the Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.

“The event was witnessed by his family and friends, which make this incident all that more tragic,” Bond said in a press release. “Unfortunately, these types of calls are becoming more and more common in our forests and recreational areas. They are also preventable.”