Hiker captures footage of terrifying moment he falls down side of a mountain
Footage showing the moment a man nearly fell to his death while hiking has left viewers terrified.
Yang Meng, 42, was in the Fanzengjian mountains, in China’s eastern Anhui province, when the incident occurred on Monday (16 September).
He even managed to capture the dramatic ordeal using his 360-degree camera.
In the clip posted to social media, you can see how Meng was walking up the mountain and all seemed to be going well.
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That is until he suddenly buckles, lands on his front and slides at speed back down the mountain slope.
To make things worse, the rock surface appears to be slippery and wet, and almost smooth, which is not an ideal terrain to walk upwards without support close by.
It appears there’s no stopping Meng from falling all the way down until a small tree comes into view and prevents him from going further downhill.
Luckily, the nightmare was finally over, but he was terrified of what could have happened had the tree not stopped him.
Meng told CNN: “I realised I couldn’t get up at all and was sliding faster and faster, that’s when it hit me - I must be falling off a cliff.
“When I hit the tree, it felt like a heavy rock crashing down. I was just thinking, ‘There’s no way I’m dead.’”
He posted the video on China’s version of TikTok, called Douyin, which racked up hundreds of thousands of views.
It was also re-shared to Reddit, where shocked viewers have shared their thoughts.
One person wrote: “Holy cow! You can see the insane fear in his eyes.”
Another said: “I bet that was the longest 7 seconds of his life.”
While a third commented: “That could've been soooo much worse.”
Others were put off by hiking thanks to the video and promised to never attempt slopes.
Someone else penned: “Good for him for maintaining some control over his fall (not rolling over and falling head first down the hill).”
In a video he later shared to the Chinese platform, Yang explained how he wasn’t too badly hurt from his fall except bruising to his left leg.
As per CNN, he said: “I guess I came out mostly unscathed. Just a little scrape on my left hand and a small cut on my thigh. Other than that, I was fine.”
However, there was one positive to come from the horrifying ordeal - it gave Yang a different outlook on life.
“Life is really short, so we need to cherish every day. I won’t let this incident hold me back. If anything, it’s pushing me to explore the world even more,” he admitted.
Britt Jones