Climber stuck in Himalayan ravine rescued after his SOS status on FB

Climber

As status updates go, it certainly beats complaints about the weather.

Pic/Facebook

A geography professor told Facebook friends he had plunged through the crevasse of a Himalayan glacier at 6,000m (19,600ft) - and pleaded to be rescued.

Prof John All posted the news on the page of the American Climber Science Program after falling 25m (80ft) into the ravine. The 44-year-old dislocated a shoulder and broke five ribs, a knee and an elbow.

The rest of his team had turned back earlier and so the professor figured that the social network offered the best chance of discovery.

‘Please call Global Rescue. John broken arm, ribs, internal bleeding. Himlung camp 2. Please hurry,' he wrote.

The fall was broken by a narrow ledge, and his Facebook friends were treated to a Touching The Void-style video of the injured climber perched precariously over an even deeper abyss.

Shocked members of the group alerted rescuers and assured the professor that help was on the way.

However, they had bad news for him, and he posted: ‘Rescue can't find a helicopter so I'll try to survive tonight.

‘So cold. Pain meds running low. Longest night ever.'

Prof All was pinpointed when the weather cleared, 19 hours after his fall, and taken to a hospital in Kathmandu.

Speaking from the Nepalese capital, he said: ‘I was near death and didn't have much room for reaction beyond a deep relief.

‘I didn't work so damn hard to get out of the crevasse just to die near my tent.'