Sierra Blogging Post Archives

Apparently... yes. Granted, you have to be "really, really lucky," but it is possible. Take John Slemp, for instance -- he fell into the crater of Mount St. Helens on Saturday and lived to tell about it.

A snowmobiler, Slemp had ridden up the mountain with some friends on Saturday. In a stroke of stupidity, he crawled out onto a cornice (an overhanging cliff of snow) in order to get a look inside the crater. But he got much more than a look when the snow gave way beneath him and he feel 100 - 300 feet onto a ledge and then slid another 800 feet or so to the crater floor.

He happened to have his snowmobile helmet on, which probably saved his life. The article in the Oregonian states...

"Oh, I'd say (he fell) about 1,000 feet," Rescuer McDowell said. "He was carried with the ice and snow, all wrapped up in an avalanche. He's lucky he had his helmet on. Really, really lucky."

Really lucky to have been wearing a helmet, really lucky not to have been buried by the avalanche he rode, and really lucky the date wasn't May 18, 1980.

It pays to wear a helmet -- whether you're skiing, snowboarding, cycling, skateboarding, horseback riding or whatever. As John Slemp discovered, you just never know what could happen.