brucie
I slipped atop a huge mound of ice trying to see the water and fell into Niagara Falls at Terrapin point many Januarys ago. My fingernails actually gripped the edge of ice as the current was grabing me up to the waist. I remember thinking "this is serious".
I was rescued by my fellow music students. Good thing I wasn't wearing gloves. They have since dynamited Terrapin Point due to many such accidents.

Did you really have a 40 ft. fall through thin air?