In what can only be described as a miracle, a man not only fell 1,500-2,000 feet into the crater of Mount St. Helens, he survived, and was almost unscathed. “It was all luck,” he says.
Last Saturday, John Slemp, his son, Jared, and a family friend, Rob Mayes, took their snowmobiles up to the crater’s rim, where they stopped to take in the view from a cornice — an overhanging shelf of snow.
It broke loose, and John dropped about 200 feet. Jared began to slide down with him until Mayes grabbed him and pulled him back to safety.
John landed on a snow bank, but when he tried to climb back up, the shelf of snow fell apart beneath him again and he went down another 1,500 feet or so.
At First, all rescuers saw in the snow was an avalanche and a tiny dot. But, when they reached John and pulled him to safety, they were amazed.
Of course, when you’re a mountaineer and choose to do this deliberately it’s called a glissade.
I once performed a 2000-foot glissade down to a trailhead outside Grindelwald back in the day…the only “miracle” being my survival though too dumb to notice the signs about avalanche danger.
Thanks, K B – who feels a proper miracle should also include virgins at the bottom of the crater!
The only thing that surprises me, Eideard, is that you didn’t drive a homebuilt hot rod to get you up there. 🙂
John Slemp is one lucky guy. Say, where was the dog with the keg of booze on the collar?
Argh, the media is once again at the “Some HORRIBLE thing happened, but this person survived. Obviously, it was a miracle or god was watching them!”
Err…ya know, if god’s so great, why didn’t he keep that horrible thing from happening in the first place?
Nate,
god did this on purpose. Since it was a slow news day, the editors needed something to fill up the paper and airwaves.
What kind of idiot parks their snowmobile on a snow shelf? Oh ya, right, an idiot with god on his side.
Grindelwald eh? dramatically beautiful place, when was that back in the day glissade John?