Teenager Falls Four Stories Off A Ski Lift

A 17-year-old boy hung on for dear life on a ski lift.

Jacob Gutierez lost his balance at a ski resort in Santa Fe, New Mexico, after trying to throw a snowball at a friend riding on the chair lift in front of him.

He held on for a full six minutes. He told Good Morning America that he just couldn't hold on any longer.

Gutierez said, “I was thinking that if I fall wrong, or fall on any of these rocks, I just might die. So I am hanging and I just lost my grip.”

His friend Dallas was recording the drama with a camera.  He captured the very moment Gutierez fell.

Dallas said, “It was pretty scary. I thought he may have died.”

Gutierez fell 45 feet to the ground and hit hard, under all the snow were giant boulders.  It was like falling of a four story building.

He said, “I actually hit my head and there was just blood everywhere."

He suffered liver damage, a collapsed lung and broken skull, but is expected to make a full recovery.

The teenager's harrowing ordeal evokes the scene from the recent horror film Frozen. In the film a skier is attacked by wolves after falling from the chairlift. Luckily things worked out better for Gutierez and he says he's learned a valuable lesson.

He said, “I am going to wear a helmet in the future.”