by Derek T » Sun Jan 30, 2011 8:38 pm
This guy was certainly very lucky, but the headline doesn't seem to describe what happened.
These quotes are from his interview with Sky News:
"We were about 3,000ft up, give or take a few."
"I couldn't because I went over the cliff edge and gained lots of speed... I was trying to slow myself down with my feet, my hands, my walking pole.
"Then I'd go over another cliff and it went on and on this way.
"I spoke to the helicopter people this morning and they said three of those drops were over 100ft in height each so I was quite lucky."
"A paramedic was winched down to check Mr Potter, who was found at 2,600ft - making his fall around 1,000ft from the summit."
So, whilst the headline has us all imagining that he plumitted down a 1,000ft cliff with a few glancing contacts with the rock on the way and then miraculously survived hitting the deck at what would have been around 300mph, the truth is that he tumbled down a very steep rock face and survived three falls of 100ft each with a total descent of around 400ft. Not quite the same, but I still want to know his lottery numbers!