Ever had a dream that you were falling? But then you woke up in your warm, cozy bed. That’s exactly what happened to Western Kentucky University professor John All — except for when he opened his eyes, he found himself at the bottom of a huge crevasse.
There was no way to get out except to climb back up. And this was complicated by the fact that he’d broken his right arm and a rib in the 70-foot fall. His lung was filling with blood.
“It probably took me four or five hours to climb out. I kept moving sideways, slightly up, sideways, slightly up, until I found an area where there was enough hard snow that I could get an ax in and pull myself up and over,” he told HLN’s “RightThisMinute”.
He fell into the crevasse Monday while conducting climate research on Mount Himlung in the Himalayas. He shot a short video right after the fall and three more during the climb out.
After struggling out of the crevasse, he slogged his way back to a tent and called for a rescue helicopter, which didn’t arrive for 18 hours.
He is lucky to be alive. Watch as he digs himself out of a frozen hell in four video segments. Warning, he drops several (well deserved) F-bombs during the struggle. —Josh Campbell
