John Slemp knows he is lucky to be alive. Slemp, his son and a friend were enjoying the view at the rim of Mt. St. Helens when a cornice gave way Saturday evening, April 12th.

"Next thing I know, I'm in kind of a fog," Slemp said. "I knew I was in a free-fall."

In his first Portland interview, Slemp told KGW how he fell 150 feet down onto soft snow. But the moment he landed, he began riding what seemed to be an avalanche that carried him another 2,000 feet down to the crater floor.

"There was no transition from free-falling to the ground, I felt absolutely nothing - it was just so soft," Slemp recalled.

He had been snowmobiling with his son, Jared and their friend Rob Mays. The trio had just stopped to venture out on a cornice near the rim of the crater and John was leading the way with Jared close behind.

“I crawled five- to ten feet away from him [Jared] we were talking, and both decided to back off,” John said.

Then the cornice gave way, and John was gone in an instant. Jared was left dangling over the edge of the new cliff.

kgw.com

This photo was taken during a previous snowmobile trip to the St. Helens crater a couple years back.

“As soon as it let loose, I was able to spin a 180 and I caught the ledge,” Jared recalled. "I had my chest above the ledge, and then I started sliding back."

A 250-pound Marine who had just returned from Iraq, the younger Slemp was now fighting for his life on the edge of a volcano.

"I was counting down, three, two, one, I'm gonna go...and then all of a sudden, here was Rob."

Just as he thought he would fall to his death, his 140-pound friend Rob Mays dove and grabbed the bigger man’s arms.

"I grabbed him by his elbows and I was holding on to him, and we stared at each other for a good 45 seconds," said Mays.

Mays dug the toes of his boots into the snow and told the Marine to climb up and over him away from the cliff. Jared pulled himself up onto May’s arms… then scrambled over him to safety.

Meantime, far down below, John had finally stopped tumbling. He stood up and realized his knee was injured and noticed cuts and scrapes on his exposed arms, but besides that, he felt amazingly alert.

 Slideshow: Photos of helicopter rescue

He remembers hearing a voice, which he thought sounded like Rob, asking if he was okay.

“I waved to him and that’s the last I saw of anything going on up top,” he said. That is, until a rescue helicopter started maneuvering its way down to him.

Incredibly, all three men survived this close call on Mt. St. Helens.

 Background: Snowmobile suit saved Klemp during plunge

And despite all they went through, Jared and Rob plan to ride back up Mt. St. Helens and visit the crater once again this Saturday. Dad will be staying home this time, still recovering from his fall.

More on Mt. St. Helens:

View: Mt. St. Helens Live Webcam

Slideshow: Recent dome-building at MSH

Multimedia: 1980 Eruption of Mt. St. Helens