KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It’s a survival story straight out of a Hollywood script.
A Kansas City native says he was severely injured during an extreme hiking trip when he fell into a glacier and broke his back. Ted Porter then had to walk three miles — with a broken vertebrae — just to survive.
Porter fell 40 feet into a Montana glacier, and at one point, he says he wasn’t sure if he’d survive. That was back on Labor Day weekend — September 3rd, to be exact. He was in Montana doing some back country hiking as he’d done many times before. This time, Porter hit a slippery slope and fell into a deep hole and broke his back.
With his camera phone in hand he recorded a farewell message for his family — telling them that if he didn’t make it out alive — he loved them.
“That moment hit me that I was never going to see them again,” Porter said.
But Porter did survive.
“I crawled my way out of a crevasse somehow. I don’t know how,” Porter said on Thursday.
Now Porter is home in Kansas City dealing with the worst pain in his life. He said the fall into that deep drop broke one vertebrae and fractured another. He was in the crevasse for about 20 minutes and the temperature was bone-chilling.
The 36-year-old says the fall happened because he wasn’t wearing the right safety gear.
Somehow, Porter climbed out of the hole, and went on a three-mile hike over rocky glaciers. He had broken his back, but he eventually found campers, who helped save his life. He’s already had one surgery to repair his back, and doctors tell his family that Ted is lucky he didn’t die from the fall.
“(Doctors) say, ‘Dude, you hit the lottery,'” Cynthia Porter, Ted’s mother, said. “I try to keep that in mind. He has trouble walking, but he can walk.”
“All the support I’ve had from my friends and family has been mind blowing,” Ted Porter said. “It’s kept me going.”
To the surprise of some, Porter said he can’t wait to get back to Montana to give it another go, only this time, he’ll use the proper safety equipment. He’ll have to wait until doctors clear him, and that’s expected to take three to four months.
Porter says his medical bills are mounting up — and the family has created a website for donations.
Click here for Ted’s website, where you can help out.
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