This must be the luckiest guy in the world at the moment.
It's beyond comprehension how he survived and then had to stay the night in those conditions.
The mental picture just makes me shudder but the human spirit and obviously his will to survive is absolutely stunning.
Talk about a wrong turn.Sheesh.
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LINK
REVELSTOKE, B.C. (CP) - An American teenager out for some holiday fun in Rocky Mountain backcountry was lucky to be alive Friday after his snowmobile went over a 450-metre-high bluff.
RCMP said the 16-year-old boy was among a party of three snowmobilers from Stillwater, Minn., on New Year's Day when his machine went over the bluff on Keystone Mountain. However, the teen suffered only a broken leg and some other injuries in the lengthy tumble.
"They were up on the ridge and we believe they were making their way back to one of the snowmobile huts," said Sgt. Randy Brown. "The young fellow took a wrong turn and went over this 1,500-foot bluff."
Brown said the boy landed on a ledge at the bottom of the bluff, which if he'd missed would have sent him plunging another 610 metres.
"He's a very lucky young man," said Brown.
The boy's father, a doctor, stayed with him while their companion snowmobiled down the mountain and then drove 50 kilometres to Revelstoke to get help.
A team of two RCMP officers and a dozen search-and-rescue workers located the teen and his dad about 2,000 metres up the mountain. But with darkness approaching they decided to set up camp for the night.
After spending the night in -10 C conditions, the injured teen was brought down the mountain Friday morning and flown by helicopter to hospital here.
© The Canadian Press, 2004