US scientist falls 21m into mountain crevasse, videocams his survival

Advisory: Graphic language is used in the video.

Call it the great escape. Or you can call it plain lucky.

Whatever it is, an American professor fell into a 21m icy crevasse in Nepal and crawled out to tell the tale, complete with video footage, Mashable reported.

Western Kentucky University professor John All was conducting climate research on Mount Himlung in the Himalayas on Monday when he suddenly fell, breaking his arm, five ribs and dislocating his shoulder.

He looked up, realised he had fallen 21m through a hole in the ground and turned on his camera. Later, he posted clips on Facebook describing it as "one of life's hardest moments".

Prof All managed to make it out of the icy hole around four to five hours later. He captured parts of his climb for survival in a series of videos he posted on YouTube.

He told CNN: "I knew that if I fell at any time in that entire four or five hours, I, of course, was going to fall all the way to the bottom of the crevasse. Any mistake, or any sort of rest or anything, I was going to die."

Source: Mashable, CNN