Adam Potter had only just suggested getting out the crampons and ice-axes when his feet skidded under him on the snow, and he slipped over the edge of one of the steepest mountain ridges in the Highlands.
In seconds he fell 300m (about 1,000 ft) down the side of Sgurr Choinnich Mor, gathering pace as he fell. He tumbled down a rough scree slope – fortunately cushioned by deep snow - and bounced over three cliffs, each perhaps a hundred feet high, scattering his kit behind him. His body twisted, heels over head. Miraculously, Potter survived. He came to rest 800m above sea level with a skinned and bloodied face, whiplash, back injuries and wrenched shoulders, when his downwards momentum was finally arrested by a boulder. He thinks the rock briefly knocked him out.
But then he stood up, gathered up his kit, opened his map and watched as a Royal Navy rescue helicopter hovered briefly then sped off to search for the mountaineer the rescue team had assumed must be severely injured or dead.
"I was lucky to survive one cliff, let alone all three," he told the Guardian this afternoon, as he recuperated in the Southern General hospital in Glasgow. "I don't remember the first two cliffs; I remember the last and I could see what was coming and at that point, I thought it was the end."
Potter, a landfill manager living in Glasgow, is an experienced mountaineer and adventure sports enthusiast. Formerly based in Sheffield, he has tackled peaks across the UK and the Himalayas, is a practised kayaker and endurance athlete.
So Saturday's expedition with his girlfriend Kate Berry, 30, and two other friends and his dog to climb Sgurr Choinnich Mor, a steep mountain 1,094m (3,589ft) high about five miles east of Ben Nevis on the Grey Corries ridge, should have been straightforward.
The weather was perfect for climbing and the snow on the ridge seemed soft and easy to tackle, he said. The name means "Big rocky peak of the moss" in Gaelic. Mountain guides describe it as "uncomplicated".
"We were on this ridge at the top and literally, I had just said 'It's getting a bit icier now, let's get our crampons on and our ice axes out'. I set out for a rock about five metres away and just as I started walking I slipped. Up to that point, the snow had been quite soft," he said.
He fell off with his ice axe tied to the back of his rucksack. "I remember at the start of it, from when I first slipped, trying to slow my speed; trying to slow myself down so I could hopefully stop. Every time I started to slow myself down I would go over a cliff and pick up speed again and as this process continued, I just kept going."
After rolling and bouncing down the mountain, scrabbling desperately to bring himself to a stop with his hands, feet and snow poles, his momentum was finally slowed by a shallower slope: "Eventually I came to a stop. I was using everything: my feet, my hands, and I came to a stop. I think I was knocked out briefly."
His rescuers were amazed he had survived. The Royal Navy search and rescue helicopter based at Prestwick 100 miles to the south in Ayrshire, had diverted from a training exercise after being alerted at 2.30pm on Saturday. They feared they would find him injured or dead.
When they saw Potter, standing in the snow, apparently uninjured and reading a map, they assumed he was someone else, and flew on.
Lieutenant Tim Barker, the observer on the Royal Navy Sea King, said: "We began to hover-taxi down the slope and spotted a man at the bottom, standing up.
"We honestly thought it couldn't have been him, as he was on his feet, reading a map. Above him was a series of three high craggy outcrops.
"It seemed impossible. So we retraced our path back up the mountain and, sure enough, there were bits of his kit in a vertical line all the way up where he had obviously lost them during the fall. It was quite incredible. He must have literally glanced off the outcrops as he fell, almost flying."
Guided by his friends pointing down at him from the peak and the trail left by the equipment, the helicopter team flew back and winched him aboard. According to Barker, Potter was "shaking from extreme emotional shock and the sheer relief at still being alive".
Barker said: "It's hard to believe that someone could have fallen that distance on that terrain and been able to stand up at the end of it, let alone chat to us in the helicopter on the way to the hospital. Really an amazing result — I have to say, when we got the call and realised the details of where he'd fallen, we did expect to arrive on scene to find the worst-case scenario."
John Stevenson, team leader for Lochaber mountain rescue, a man with hard-won experience dealing with the appalling accidents and injuries suffered by mountaineers and ice climbers around Ben Nevis, said: "He's a very, very lucky man. The snow must have helped cushion his fall."
There were 27 fatal falls by climbers on Scottish mountains in 2009, against 20 in 2008.
Stevenson added: "Ironically it was probably the snow that caused him to slip but it has saved his life." But despite surviving one of the most extreme falls seen by Highland rescue teams, Potter isn't planning to take it easy. In eight weeks he is scheduled to head out on a 10-week mission to another testing peak: Everest.
He said today: "I'm hoping my injuries will have healed by then."
In seconds he fell 300m (about 1,000 ft) down the side of Sgurr Choinnich Mor, gathering pace as he fell. He tumbled down a rough scree slope – fortunately cushioned by deep snow - and bounced over three cliffs, each perhaps a hundred feet high, scattering his kit behind him. His body twisted, heels over head. Miraculously, Potter survived. He came to rest 800m above sea level with a skinned and bloodied face, whiplash, back injuries and wrenched shoulders, when his downwards momentum was finally arrested by a boulder. He thinks the rock briefly knocked him out.
But then he stood up, gathered up his kit, opened his map and watched as a Royal Navy rescue helicopter hovered briefly then sped off to search for the mountaineer the rescue team had assumed must be severely injured or dead.
"I was lucky to survive one cliff, let alone all three," he told the Guardian this afternoon, as he recuperated in the Southern General hospital in Glasgow. "I don't remember the first two cliffs; I remember the last and I could see what was coming and at that point, I thought it was the end."
Potter, a landfill manager living in Glasgow, is an experienced mountaineer and adventure sports enthusiast. Formerly based in Sheffield, he has tackled peaks across the UK and the Himalayas, is a practised kayaker and endurance athlete.
So Saturday's expedition with his girlfriend Kate Berry, 30, and two other friends and his dog to climb Sgurr Choinnich Mor, a steep mountain 1,094m (3,589ft) high about five miles east of Ben Nevis on the Grey Corries ridge, should have been straightforward.
The weather was perfect for climbing and the snow on the ridge seemed soft and easy to tackle, he said. The name means "Big rocky peak of the moss" in Gaelic. Mountain guides describe it as "uncomplicated".
"We were on this ridge at the top and literally, I had just said 'It's getting a bit icier now, let's get our crampons on and our ice axes out'. I set out for a rock about five metres away and just as I started walking I slipped. Up to that point, the snow had been quite soft," he said.
He fell off with his ice axe tied to the back of his rucksack. "I remember at the start of it, from when I first slipped, trying to slow my speed; trying to slow myself down so I could hopefully stop. Every time I started to slow myself down I would go over a cliff and pick up speed again and as this process continued, I just kept going."
After rolling and bouncing down the mountain, scrabbling desperately to bring himself to a stop with his hands, feet and snow poles, his momentum was finally slowed by a shallower slope: "Eventually I came to a stop. I was using everything: my feet, my hands, and I came to a stop. I think I was knocked out briefly."
His rescuers were amazed he had survived. The Royal Navy search and rescue helicopter based at Prestwick 100 miles to the south in Ayrshire, had diverted from a training exercise after being alerted at 2.30pm on Saturday. They feared they would find him injured or dead.
When they saw Potter, standing in the snow, apparently uninjured and reading a map, they assumed he was someone else, and flew on.
Lieutenant Tim Barker, the observer on the Royal Navy Sea King, said: "We began to hover-taxi down the slope and spotted a man at the bottom, standing up.
"We honestly thought it couldn't have been him, as he was on his feet, reading a map. Above him was a series of three high craggy outcrops.
"It seemed impossible. So we retraced our path back up the mountain and, sure enough, there were bits of his kit in a vertical line all the way up where he had obviously lost them during the fall. It was quite incredible. He must have literally glanced off the outcrops as he fell, almost flying."
Guided by his friends pointing down at him from the peak and the trail left by the equipment, the helicopter team flew back and winched him aboard. According to Barker, Potter was "shaking from extreme emotional shock and the sheer relief at still being alive".
Barker said: "It's hard to believe that someone could have fallen that distance on that terrain and been able to stand up at the end of it, let alone chat to us in the helicopter on the way to the hospital. Really an amazing result — I have to say, when we got the call and realised the details of where he'd fallen, we did expect to arrive on scene to find the worst-case scenario."
John Stevenson, team leader for Lochaber mountain rescue, a man with hard-won experience dealing with the appalling accidents and injuries suffered by mountaineers and ice climbers around Ben Nevis, said: "He's a very, very lucky man. The snow must have helped cushion his fall."
There were 27 fatal falls by climbers on Scottish mountains in 2009, against 20 in 2008.
Stevenson added: "Ironically it was probably the snow that caused him to slip but it has saved his life." But despite surviving one of the most extreme falls seen by Highland rescue teams, Potter isn't planning to take it easy. In eight weeks he is scheduled to head out on a 10-week mission to another testing peak: Everest.
He said today: "I'm hoping my injuries will have healed by then."
