CONWAY (KATV) -
A Conway teen is recovering after falling from a cliff in the Ozark National Forest.
Sam Roberts, 18, is home after falling Saturday near the spot where another teen was killed in December.
Roberts and his friends Ty Maple and Parker West were near the popular Whitaker Point when Roberts slipped and fell from the steep cliff.
"The next thing you know, you hear him screaming and you hear when he hit the ground," Maple remembered.
The Conway graduates have been hiking and camping together since high school
Last July, the teens hiked 32 miles in four days in the Smokey Mountains.
Although the experienced trio knew to climb with ropes, Maple said they were not when Roberts fell.
"I thought he was dead, because you heard the scream on the way down and then you hear the thud and then you don't hear anything," Maple said.
Maple said Roberts fell 35 feet, landing on a slope with his head between two rocks.
"You could see in his face, he was wincing in pain," Maple said of his friend. "But he was really quiet."
Roberts told his friends he focused on a single leaf to keep his mind off the pain as he waited for help.
When rescuers arrived, he was attached to a backboard and pulled back up the cliff.
"It took about 40 of us and we just pulled him up to the very top where the whole thing started; where he fell," Maple said.
Weather didn't allow for an air evacuation so the entire rescue took six hours and was all done on foot.
"It was just a miracle honestly and we know that he has got a great calling on his life and something great is going to come from this," Maple said.
Roberts was in the hospital in Harrison for several days with a broken arm and tailbone, according to Maple, but is expected to be okay.
Sam Roberts, 18
