OAK HARBOR, Wash. -- A 17-year-old climber was saved by a Navy rescue team after falling several hundred feet and suffering a severe head injury in a Fourth of July climbing accident in the Olympic Mountains.

Jake Patterson was climbing with his friend Jeff on Mount Deception when he plummeted down a steep gully. His helmet was knocked from his head on impact and he was left bleeding in a remote basin.

An experienced technical climber with rescue training, Ambrose Bittner was nearby with his group when he heard Patterson's climbing partner calling for help.

Bittner and his group found a ranger and called the Coast Guard, but after three attempts to drop their chopper down a narrow gully over three hours, the Coast Guard was unable to make the rescue.

Patterson was kept warm, but rescuers said they knew time was running out.

"Every time a helicopter left for some reason -- to go refuel, or to lighten their load -- our hearts dropped. We weren't sure if they were ever able to come back that night," said Bittner.

A Navy rescue crew from Naval Air Station Whidbey was called in.

Chad Lewis and his fellow Navy rescue crewmen said it was one of the most challenging rescues they ever made and likened the conditions to dropping the helicopter in an elevator shaft.

With the chopper only feet away from rock walls, a rescuer dropped down hundreds of feet in a litter and then secured Patterson, who was then pulled up to safety.

Patterson was transported to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where he remains on life support.