West Jordan man tells survival story after long fall

BIG COTTONWOOD CANYON – A West Jordan man is telling his survival story after a dangerous fall that he says should have killed him, and he hopes what happened to him won’t happen to anyone else.

Near the end of April, Casey Hunter rolled a snowmobile and lost the key.  He made it a personal goal to find that key, so, he went back to the spot on July 5, about a mile away from ski trails at Brighton.  While he was climbing along the ridge, he lost his footing.  Hunter say, “I slid probably about 80 yards out of control before I hit the boulder patch.”

The details that follow are pretty gruesome.  He crashed into the rocks, and went about 40 yards after that. When he looked down, he saw his foot was nearly severed and was only connected to his legs by two inches of tissue.  Hunter adds, “It was mid-day, Wednesday, and sitting there, holding my leg in the air and yelling for help… you could hear it echo across the entire canyon but, nobody was around.”

For a while, he wondered if he was going to die in that spot.  But, thoughts of his pregnant wife gave him the strength to crawl on his knees to reach his phone and call for help.  “I was laying in bed last night and started crying because I realized that I’ll be able to bless my own baby,” he says.  After five hours of surgery, doctors were able to reattach his foot, but, there’s still a chance he could lose it.  “I still have full feeling, movement, touch sensation and everything with it.  So, it’s kind of weird seeing it seemingly function perfectly and still not know if I’ll get to keep it.”

Hunter says he felt over-prepared for his hike, but, realized he wasn’t after he crashed into the rocks.  He’s warning everyone to never go into the mountains alone.

(Photo Credit: Casey Hunter, YouTube)