Climber Who Fell 1,000 Feet Tells His Story

A hiker who's exceptionally lucky to be alive after falling almost 1,000 feet off one of Scotland's highest peaks says he thought he was a goner. And now, Adam Potter is out of the hospital.

Some call his survival a miracle.

But Potter, says CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips, had a mountain of luck on his side when he slipped on ice.

"I was actually in a position where I could see what was coming, and that's what filled me with a bit of dread, at that moment there, because I could see what I was about to go over and I thought that might be it," Potter says.

Potter, 36, of Glasgow, went over the steep, craggy eastern slope of the mountain, says Phillips. He tried desperately and repeatedly to stop his fall, using his hands, feet and walking pole. But he kept falling, twice going over ledges into thin air, freefalling 100 feet at a time.

When he finally came to a stop, he was unconscious, but very much alive, battered and bruised, with some cracked vertebrae, having fallen about as far as the Eiffel Tower is high.

"I looked up when I came around, because I'd been knocked out. I actually looked up and it was then that I really appreciated, ''OK, I've come a long way,"' Potter says.

When rescuers found him, he was standing, reading a map, trying to figure out where he was and how he could rejoin the climbing party.

Next for Potter? He's eyeing a climb of -- Mount Everest.

To see Phillips' complete report and more remarks from Potter, click on the video below: