When it comes to people taking selfies at the top of mountains, we’ve heard some pretty scary horror stories. But don’t worry, this one isn’t that gruesome because this time, we’ve got a freakish story of survival.
A 14-year-old British teenager was on a school trip skiing in Mölltaler Gletscher, southern Austria and felt pretty proud of himself when he got to the 10,242ft-high peak, called Scharek. Granted, he’d taken a ski-lift up there with his schoolmates, but still, it was probably a pretty great view. So he did what teenagers do when faced with something very beautiful to look at – he took a selfie in front of it.
However, as he stepped backwards, The Sun reports, he slipped on the ledge of the mountain and fell a whopping 1,640 feet (that’s 500 metres, or half a kilometre, depending on how you measure these things).
By some incredible stroke of luck, the boy survived the fall, too!
Mountain rescue said: ‘We got a call from the ski-instructor who said one of the boys had fallen off the mountain. When we got there we found him lying on a ledge that had stopped his fall.
‘If it hadn’t been there, this would have ended tragically. As it was, he was conscious and in shock but miraculously hadn’t broken any bones or anything else.
‘We airlifted him to a nearby hospital.’
His injuries? A hospital spokesman said: ‘He was given a check-up and despite a few cuts and bruises, he was absolutely fine.
‘It’s a miracle really. He is being kept in for observations and he should be out soon.
‘And I imagine he has got quite an interesting selfie to show off.’
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.