Siberian man falls 9 stories head-first down VENT SHAFT & survives thanks to FELT BOOTS he dropped there earlier

Russia's national footwear, valenki, nearly earned a Siberian man a Darwin Award – an honor given to people whose stupidity contributes to their deaths – but ended up saving his life and propelling him into the news.

The residents of an apartment block in Yakutsk, located some 450km south of the Arctic Circle, were woken up in the middle of the night on Sunday by loud cries for help.
Strangely, the noise was coming from behind a solid wall on the ground floor. Rescuers who were called to the scene cut through the wall with buzz saws and hammers to discover a man hanging upside down inside a ventilation shaft.

He was taken to hospital, with video footage of the bizarre rescue operation uploaded online.

© Emergencies Ministry

But the story of how the guy got there was actually even more bizarre. It turned out that he had dropped his valenki into the ventilation shaft on the 10th floor.

Some suggested he was trying to dry the footwear. His attempt to retrieve the boots went terribly wrong. He lost his balance and fell into the shaft, tumbling some 28 meters (90ft) down. It should've been fatal, but the man was incredibly lucky as the shaft got narrower on the lower floors and his landing was cushioned by the woolen valenki.

Over the course of centuries, valenki have saved the lives of many Russians, but in a different manner. The felted boots, which are made from dried sheep's wool, have simply kept people's feet warm during long and freezing winters.

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