Show re-creates crevasse drama
The gripping tale of a hiker who survived a 40-foot-fall into a Glacier National Park crevasse will be told today in an episode of Outdoor Channel’s “Fight to Survive.”
In September 2013, Ted Porter of Los Angeles not only broke his back in the fall on Jackson Glacier, but he also had to get out of the crevasse and walk and crawl three miles off-trail for help.
Porter recounts his story in the “Fight to Survive” segment that airs today at 11:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. The Outdoors Channel is available on Charter cable as well as DirectTV and Dish Network satellite television services.
Porter first told his harrowing tale to the Daily Inter Lake while he was recovering in the hospital in Kalispell.
“I just started careening down the glacier and I can’t stop. I’m sliding and I’m trying to boot ski as much as possible. ... I couldn’t stop sliding and this big crevasse just [approached] right in front of me and there was nothing I could do to stop myself.
“I just dropped right into the crevasse,” he said. “From what I remember, it was violent and fast. I hit the front side, the far wall, and bounced back and I must have just dropped straight down, and I ended up on my butt and my legs with a broken back. I just knew something was severely wrong. The pain was unbelievable.”
Porter said one lumbar vertebra in his lower back was “totally crushed” and another vertebra was damaged in the incident during a solo hike on Sept. 3, 2013.
The situation was very much like that of a climber who got stuck in a slot canyon in Utah several years ago, requiring him to amputate his own arm to get out. Porter had seen that story portrayed in the movie, “127 Hours,” featuring actor James Franco. In the movie, Franco’s character uses a video camera to film parts of his ordeal.
“It was just like that,” Porter said of his glacial predicament. “I didn’t have to saw off my arm, but I tell you what, it wasn’t too far away from that.”
At one point, Porter used his cellphone to make a 35-second goodbye video.
“I wanted to document that I fell down the crevasse,” he said. “I was hoping that somebody would find my phone.”
Porter thought he might be found because his parents, who had flown back to their home in Kansas City the day before, knew that he was going to Jackson Glacier.
“I said, ‘I fell down the crevasse, my back is very badly injured.’ ... I said, If I don’t see you again, I want you to know I love you very much,’” Porter told the Inter Lake about his video.
Porter managed to strap on his crampons and painstakingly climb out of the crevasse.
Then he had to bushwhack three miles to the campground at Gunsight Lake. After being cared for during the night by campers, he was airlifted by the ALERT helicopter the next day to Kalispell Regional Medical Center.
Porter portrayed himself in the Outdoor Channel re-enactment of his ordeal.
According to a news release from the Outdoor Channel, “Returning to the glacial crevasse was an important part of his personal recovery and will provide viewers with a startlingly realistic take — especially with the inclusion of Ted’s cellphone videos from the traumatic day woven into the episode.”
Log on to www.OutdoorChannel.com for complete show schedules.