A mountain climber is lucky to be alive after a terrifying 500-foot fall in California ’s Sierra Nevada — and an even more grueling night stranded on the side of a mountain.

According to California Highway Patrol’s Inland Division Air Operations, the climber was hiking with his brother near Kings Canyon National Park 's Mount Baxter when disaster struck. While traversing a steep, snow-covered slope, the man lost his footing when a patch of snow gave way beneath him, sending him plunging roughly 500 feet down the mountainside.

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He somehow survived the fall, but not without serious injuries, including multiple broken bones.

Mount Williamson, the second-highest mountain in California at 14,379 feet, is seen without snow in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains near Lone Pine, Calif., on Aug. 12, 2022, amid a severe drought affecting the region.…