walked away after falling 50-55ft

by Rich Callaway
(5km from Rock Lake)

Here's my story...

this is the best description i can give from what i remember and what my friends told me... I'm 18, I fell when I was 17, last august, 2009.

me and my friends were camping at a secluded campsite out near rock. The campsite was overlooking a ravine in the rocky mountains, British Columbia. We decided that we would go to the other side of the ravine the next morning when the sun rose.

Before we left we brought a bag and some golf clubs. As we were climbing down the first hillside into the ravine we started filling the bag of golf balls on our way to the cliff.

At the bottom of the ravine there were three small streams we had to jump across to finally get to the cliff face. Fairly steep cliff don't remember how i climbed to the top (i think went quite far around and up) but we stayed there for a while shooting golf balls off and enjoying the serenity. I guess one of my friends almost fell and some of them trekked back to the campsite.

I was sitting on a ledge about 3/4 feet from the very top for a good amount of time, not much space to get there and it was inclined roughly 5 degrees (loose rocks too i guess). I was carrying a bag full of golf balls probably around my back, not sure if they were in a backpack or not. All I remember was desperately trying to pull myself back up from the ledge as I was sliding off...

I landed on Large rocks... nothing to cushion my fall except maybe the golf balls. I barely remember falling at all, only remember a brief second WHILE I was falling. I also remember some pieces from AFTER I fell, but ONLY when my friends explained it to me after.

After my friends climbed back down I looked pretty f***ed up though still conscious, I had gashes on my lip and chin, head was a little split open, gash on my ankle, wrist and lots on my leg (the gash beside my left knee was around the size of a toonie, took a chunk of skin right off). With several lacerations all over my body too.

I was so disoriented and in shock, when my friends found me I was trying to pick up the golf balls again. (I think I landed on my back on the bag of golf balls which saved my life or saved me from being paralyzed). Since I think I stood up and started walking right away I was lucky I didn't brake my back or neck on impact. I might have taken a few steps on my bad leg after I fell but I know I couldn't put ANY weight on it quite quickly after. Somehow my leg wasn't broken either.

I fell about a kilometer walking distance from the campsite which all of it was almost DIRECTLY up hill (very hard to walk back up some of it you have to actually hold onto trees to pull yourself up the hill), and about an hour drive from the closest hospital... as we were crossing the stream which now I didn't have to jump back across, I wanted to stop and clean my face off.

I think i was there for 5 minutes maybe less before I started to repeat myself, I started asking especially these three things "is my face bleeding?"
"yeah"
"is there towels back at the campsite?"
"Yeah"
"is there an ambulance coming?"
"yeah" about 2-5 times each, that's when my friend realized we should probably start moving again.

I also took my shirt off to tie around the gash in my leg to stop blood loss, but i ended up tying it 4 or 5 times because I thought it kept coming loose (it wasn't). My whole leg was covered in blood and I was bleeding A LOT from all over my body.

Well other than the golf balls my friends are the real reason I'm still alive. Taking turns to carry me while others went back to get help, they carried me from the cliff to the bottom of the first hill (this last hill was too steep to carry me) where search and rescue eventually pulled me up. I'm 150lbs and once again it was over a kilometer up-hill. Still I don't know how they did it.

I woke up in the hospital that night or morning trying to remember if I actually fell of a cliff or not, even though I couldn't walk (I didnt even know what month or year it was).I got my answer pretty quickly.

I ended up getting 40 stitches, 6-head, 2-wrist, 4-ankle, 3-lip, 4-chin, and 21 around my left knee. I was in a hospital bed for 6 or 7 days until I could crutch around again and another week after that until I could walk on my own. There was a small hole near my lungs which also worried doctors but it eventually healed. Doctors told me I lost 3/3.5 pints of blood when I reached the ambulance...

It was really weird going back to the cliff because I barely recognized it at all. I had no idea which cliff it was or how to get there but my friends went back too to show me.

All-in-all I made a full recovery in a pretty short period. Although, this fall really shot my memory, I have trouble remembering a lot of things I did in my life/people/places I've seen/been Prior to the fall, and my short term memory is still really sketchy, although I think it's getting better in time.

Thanks, search and rescue for driving me to the hospital and carrying me up that last hill... but the amount of recognition that you gave my friends was PATHETIC.

I know I'm very lucky to be alive, and even walking in general.

I went back a month later and climbed the cliff again to conquer what could have killed me...

Can honestly never look at life the same again...

To my friends who saved my life...

I'll never be able to thank you enough for what you guys did for me on that day. You guys are amazing people and even more amazing friends. I`m telling this story right now only because my life `fell` in YOUR guys`hands ;)

ID CARRY YOU GUYS TO THE END OF THE WORLD! ?