A climbing trip with friends turned into a nightmare after one man was struck by a microwave-sized boulder and thrown off a cliffside.
The impact shattered Cody Boehm's collarbone, broke seven ribs, tore a deep gash across his back, and collapsed his right lung - leaving him in a difficult position, on a steep and rocky terrain.
The freak accident happened at the Confluence Crag near Lions Camp on the Lake Fork of Rock Creek, outside Red Lodge, Montana, last Sunday (September 21).
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Boehm was on the ground as his friend climbed 50 feet above him, but when his mate stepped onto a ledge, a huge rock broke free and crashed down onto Boehm’s helmeted head before slamming into his body.
"I definitely knew my right side was broke," he told KTVQ reporters bedside from Billings Clinic, in southern Montana.
"I was feeling like I wasn’t going to make it. There was a point there where I was like, this is bad."
Boehm added: "Where I was, kind of steep, lots of rock, really terrible terrain."
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His friends leapt into action immediately - one stayed to keep him conscious and stem the bleeding, while the other scrambled to find help.
What followed was a full-scale rescue mission.
Red Lodge Fire Rescue, local search and rescue, and Custer Gallatin National Forest rangers worked together to extract Boehm from the remote area.
Chainsaw crews cleared fallen trees from the rugged trail as medics navigated the terrain to reach the avid rock climber.
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"The trail had a bunch of trees falling everywhere. So they had a tree crew out there, cut trees down in front of me," Boehm recalled. "They did amazing."
He continued: "Just seeing a crew, like a massive crew just coming up. It was just cool."
As for his survival, it's chalked down to one thing - if he didn't have his helmet on, he'd have died.
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Boehm’s message for other climbers is simple: "Your helmet will save your life no matter what. That’s what saved my life. If I didn’t have my helmet on, I wouldn’t be here today."
Speaking to the TV station, Dr Gordon Riha - the trauma surgeon who has treated the climber at the hospital - described severity of his injury.
"He was significantly injured. Personnel who were involved in Cody’s care deserve significant praise and a lot of kudos. They went above and beyond with their extraction from a very difficult location," he said, before touching on the fact that Boehm's helmet saved his life.
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"If that would have hit his head… if he wasn’t wearing a helmet, he would have had significant and severe intracranial injury, which likely would have been life-threatening," Dr Riha added.
Topics: US News
Joe Yates