LEWISTON – The top of the 3,068-foot western Maine mountain was within Aaron Chabot’s reach.

So he grabbed onto a rock wedged in a crevasse to pull himself up.

But at the last moment, the rock popped loose and the 24-year-old Auburn man plunged 100 feet headfirst down Tumbledown Mountain, landing on a ledge. His climbing partner, Nathan Wing of Auburn, thought Chabot was dead.

After a difficult rescue after his Oct. 20 accident, Chabot was flown to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston to be treated for numerous facial fractures along with a dislocated hip and knee, concussion and collapsed lung among other injuries. He is expected to be released today.

Chabot said his mind was clear during the free fall between ledges he smashed into on the way down, and he blacked out only for a short time after he hit the bottom.

He tried to make a mental list of his injuries when he came to, thinking that he had broken his leg. But the snap he heard had been a branch piercing his knee.