Posted on 08/23/2014 8:25:42 AM PDT by Citizen Zed
A Colorado man plunged 100 feet while hiking but managed an improbable landing, using his gymnastics skills to help keep him alive.
Dylan Schuetz, 21, fell last week at St. Mary’s Glacier, a popular spot for hikers.
He tumbled head-first over the ledge, with death almost certain. But just as he has done at the gym countless times, Schuetz flipped mid-air to land on his feet. That move stunned his friend Cody Tengler.
“He spots his landing and then kind of does a flip, a front flip over himself,” Tengler recalled.
Schuetz broke both of his legs and ankles in the fall. He also punctured a lung. His frightened friends tried desperately to keep him conscious until help arrived.
“We just kept talking to him, do everything that you can to keep him alive and going, and just have hope,” Matthew Campbell, Schuetz’s friend, told ABC News.
Schuetz is recovering at Colorado Hospital, with another surgery scheduled for Friday.
His mother, Stacey Dale-Schuetz, says her son plans to never hike again.
(Excerpt) Read more at news92fm.com ...
I just tie cats to my shoes.
Plans to never hike again?
Hey Tijeras_Slim. Now don’t go fallin’ of Sandia Peak. Not sure the cats would help that much. I used to have a T-shirt that said “I skied the west face” from Sandia Ski Area. Still better than landing on his noggin’. :>}
That’s close to the classic Parachute Landing Fall (PLF). And a good martial arts training teaches people how to take a fall.
For the PLF: Keep your feet and knees together, but relaxed enough so that there is already a slight bend to the knees. Bring your elbows into your chest, chin down, and bring up your arms so that the forearms block your face and your hands rest on the crown of your skull.
If your feet (toes, hopefully) touch the ground first, just crumple to one side or the other, generally in the direction that the fall is taking you. You’ve done about all you can for the force of the impact to be distributed across the body, reducing shock and any fractures you may receive. The key thing is to keep the body relaxed, if that can be managed.
True, it works best with a parachute attached to you to lessen the impact! But that’s what I’d hope to do if I feel support give way in a high place.
That whole “Ski Sandia West” was a bit done by a local radio morning show, hoping to get Texans to kill themselves.
Remarkable, if not miraculous!!!
People just don’t survive falls from a height like that! Hell; even half that!!! It’s my understanding that anything over two stories, and you’re breaking bones and or dead!
It might be easier to tie an open face peanut butter sandwich to the cats back and hold on tightly to the cat.
The cat always lands on its feet and the sandwich always lands sticky side down.
My theory is you would just levitate. Or you might go into a high speed barrel roll.
Ouch. I thought most of them went to Ruidoso since it was closer. :>}
How would you be able to maneuver yourself in mid-air to get your legs under you in what must have been what...3-4 seconds?
Texas skiers are like ebola, they’re everywhere.
LOL! Yeah, we get ‘em here in Tahoe too. I guess one good thing from my back surgery is that I won’t be skiing anymore and only have to deal with them on the highway.
I was in martial arts a long time ago. Couldn’t whip a kitten anymore but last winter I went down hard off of a two foot rize onto solid ice. Old muscle memory saved the day. Hit just like I eas taught and was hardly sore the next day.
That's what he told his mom...
};^P>
not hike anymore?
It’s not the hiking - it’s hiking on cliff edges -
I fell over a hundred feet once. Pissed off everyone on the bus.
I agree martial arts training is great for avoiding and surviving falls.
It was too noisy in Ruidoso.
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