- The 22-year-old had just about reached top of the wall, but then he lost his grip
This is the horrifying moment a man plunges 50ft to the ground from a climbing wall in Poland while not wearing a harness.
The 22-year-old was filmed making the ascent and had just about reached the top, but he lost his grip and fell to the ground, suffering horrific injuries.
The man can be seen glugging his drink from a sports flask before chalking up his hands and making a steady ascent up the wall.
But just as he makes his way over the last few footholds, tantalizingly close to his target, he drops back and hits the rubber floor with a sickening thud.
Paramedics and firemen arrived on the scene in Bytom, southern Poland on Friday and gave the injured but conscious athlete first aid.
The man can be seen glugging his drink from a sports flask before chalking up his hands and making a steady ascent up the wall. But just as he makes his way over the last few footholds, tantalizingly close to his target, he loses grip and hits the rubber floor with a terrifying thud
He was then taken to hospital by air ambulance.
The man was still at the Trauma Centre in Sosnowiec yesterday with fractures and bruises.
He has already had several orthopaedic surgeries and awaits more, according to local media.
The medics treating him are optimistic that he’ll make a full recovery.
The young man is reportedly a keen climber and has been training for several years for competitions.
Dobromir Bujak of the sports club in question told local media: ‘The injured athlete was experienced and had the necessary knowledge to train independently.
After the manfell to the floor, paramedics and firemen arrived on the scene and gave the injured but conscious athlete first aid
‘Before climbing the wall, each climber goes through a starting procedure, which consists of several specific steps.
‘First, they approach the wall and prepare the starting platform.
‘Then they step back, and only at the next attempt do they clip in and start.
‘Due to maximum focus on the challenge and visualisation of the start, one of the elements, namely clipping into auto-belay, was simply overlooked.
‘Presumably, the athlete wasn’t aware until the end that he wasn’t clipped in.’
The young athlete fell when he bounced off the top of the wall to reach the timer switch.
The sports club has said that qualified instructors were present at the time, but everything happened so quickly that they missed the man’s blunder.
The case is being investigated.