A climber barely survived a 1000-foot fall from a Scottish mountain. But he still has his sights set on scaling Mount Everest.
Adam Potter, from Glasgow, Scotland, was climbing Sgurr Choinnich Mor in the Grampian Mountains on Saturday when he slipped and fell. His fall took him 1000 feet down over three sheer drops of 100 feet each before he finally stopped on a boulder above yet another cliff. By the time Potter, 36, came to a halt, he had lost consciousness and awoke with no idea of how badly injured he was. He promptly stood up, got out his map and started planning his route home.
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“I was trying to work out where I was,” he said later. “I had my map out, I’d gone on to autopilot. I’d already started to put my rucksack back on. I was just going to walk back up. I think that was part of the shock. I knew there was a couple of patches of blood on the snow but I just felt a bit shook up.”
Soon after he was rescued by the Royal Navy Sea King helicopter. The head of the rescue team from nearby HMS Gannet at Prestwick, Lieutenant Tim Barker, said he feared the “worst-case scenario” when he heard details of the fall but was astonished to find Potter standing up and reading his map.
Potter was taken to the Southern General Hospital where he had a CT scan and several X-rays. As well as superficial injuries and minor fractures his back is broken in three places, although the central spinal column is not affected.
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The main thing Potter can remember thinking as he plummeted down the mountain was: “This is going to muck up my Everest trip.” He still plans to go ahead with the trip “providing my injuries heal okay,” adding “I’ve got eight weeks to get better for it.” (via BBC)