LONDON (AFP) – A climber who fell around 300 metres from the summit of a Scottish mountain is lucky to be alive, his rescuers said Sunday.
The helicopter crew sent to search for the man were astonished to find him standing up and reading a map.
Adam Potter, 35, lost his footing on Saturday and fell down the craggy and near-vertical eastern face of Sgurr Choinnich Mor, a1,094-metre high mountain in the western Highlands.
"We got to an area where it is a bit more slippy and a bit icier... I slipped, and that's when the fall began to happen," Potter explained.
"The speed accumulated really fast. I was trying to slow myself down but every time I slowed myself down I would then go over a cliff edge, so I would get all my speed back.
"Towards the end I had almost lost all of my speed, then I actually saw what I was about to go over, which was one more cliff, and I actually thought that would be it.
"I thought that might have been the end on that one," he added.
The Glasgow man, part of a group of 24 climbers, was spotted at around 2,600 feet (790 metres), making his tumble almost 300 metres from the summit.
A Royal Navy Sea King helicopter reached the scene 35 minutes later and spotted a man at the bottom of the slope.
"We honestly thought it couldn't have been him, as he was on his feet, reading a map," said Lieutenant Tim Barker, the crew's observer.
"It seemed impossible. So we retraced our path back up the mountain and, sure enough, there were bits of his kit in a vertical line all the way up where he had obviously lost them during the fall.
"It was quite incredible. He must have literally glanced off the outcrops as he fell, almost flying."
A paramedic winched down to check the man, who appeared to be unscathed beyond some superficial cuts and bruises and a minor chest injury,
He was said to be "shaking from extreme emotional shock and the sheer relief at still being alive".
The man was flown to a Glasgow hospital.
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300m '수직낙하' 英 등산객 무사
(런던 AFP=연합뉴스) 영국 스코틀랜드의 한 산 정상에서 한 등산객이 거의 수직으로 300m 아래로 떨어졌으나 별다른 상처도 없이 기적적으로 목숨을 구했다고 구조 대원들이 30일 전했다.
등산객 아담 포터(35)는 지난 29일 서부 하이랜즈 지방에 있는 스구르 최인츠 모르 산(해발 1천94m)의 정상부에서 균형을 잃고 미끄러져 돌덩이가 울퉁불퉁한 거 의 수직 사면으로 떨어졌다.
조난신고를 받고 헬기를 타고 출동한 구조대는 사건발생 35분만에 포터를 발견 하고 접근했는데 그가 가벼운 찰과상을 제외하고는 사지가 멀쩡한 것은 물론 선 자세로 지도를 꺼내 위치를 확인하고 있어 조난자라고 믿을 수 없는 지경이었다고 말 했다.
구조대는 그러나 포터를 데리고 산 정상부로 되돌아오면서 곳곳에서 포터의 장비와 미끄러진 흔적을 발견하고 그가 사실상 수직으로 "날았다"는 것을 확인할 수 있었다고 말했다.
