Michael Cole is opening up about one of the scariest moments of his life, revealing he came within inches of falling 2,000 feet to his death during a mountain climb.
Speaking on Stephanie McMahon’s What’s Your Story? podcast, the longtime WWE commentator recalled the terrifying accident that happened while climbing Grand Teton, admitting he legitimately thought he wasn’t going to make it off the mountain.
Cole explained that reaching the summit wasn’t actually the hardest part. After climbing to the 13,950-foot peak and even FaceTiming his wife from the top, his guide warned him that the real challenge was still ahead.
“Grand Teton is technically a mountain climb. The first 12,000 feet or so is basically a hike, and you’re dealing with rocks and that kind of stuff. You get to your base camp, where you stay the night. The next day, pretty much the last 150 to 200 feet to the summit, you’re scaling a wall. You have to be very careful with it. We’re all roped in through our harnesses and the guide, so if you slip off the mountain, you have protection.
We summited Grand Teton the second time around and got to the top at 13,950 feet. I was even able to FaceTime my wife from up there. The guide warned us, ‘Listen, the hardest part is getting off the mountain.’ Coming down the mountain is one of the most difficult things to do. You have to be careful because you think it’s all over now and it’s all downhill.”
Things took a frightening turn during the descent when Cole slipped while trying to unclip his rope after rappelling down an 85-foot cliff. He tumbled down the mountain before coming to a stop just short of a massive drop.
“We were coming off the mountain and had to rappel 85 feet off a cliff onto the next landing area. I went first, and we’d all been trained for this. I rappelled down, landed, and was having trouble getting the rope unclipped from my harness so I could send it back up to the others. It was tight, and I couldn’t get it loose. I finally yanked it, and when I did, my boot slipped on a rock covered with ice. As I slipped, all I remember was tumbling head over heels for about 55 to 60 feet and legitimately stopping inches away from going over a 2,000-foot drop.”
Cole initially believed he’d broken his ankle and sat in shock, realizing how close he had come to dying. Instead of immediately calling for a rescue, the guide laid out Cole’s options: wait days for an expensive helicopter or somehow hike back down the mountain himself.
“I had a helmet on, but I thought I’d broken my ankle. I was sitting there dazed and in shock that I’d almost killed myself, thinking about what my wife would say if she knew this story. I’m sitting there thinking, ‘I have a broken ankle.’ Frenchie comes down next and asks, ‘Are you okay?’ I said, ‘I think I’ve got a broken ankle.’ Our guide didn’t panic. He rolled the rope up, came over to me, looked at my ankle, and said, ‘You’ve got two options. We call a helicopter. It’s $15,000, but it won’t be able to get here for 32 days. Or you walk off this mountain.’ So I walked off the mountain. We started hiking, and at one point we had to get back to base camp so they could tape my ankle. I was literally dragging my foot across the ground. It ended up not being broken—it was a severe sprain.”
Even after escaping the fall, Cole said the ordeal was far from over. With an injured ankle, he still had to navigate another dangerous section of the mountain where one mistake could have pulled multiple people down with him.
“We were coming across the face of this wall, probably from that light to that light in distance, to get down to the next level, and it was really dangerous. Frenchie and I were next, and our guide was above us with the rope tied around this huge rock for leverage. He was trying to hold both of us—Frenchie and me—and we each weighed about 200 pounds. As we were crossing the mountain, the problem was that if I slipped, with no use of my left ankle, I’d go down, Frenchie would go down, and he’d come down too. That was the most intense 20 minutes of my life.”
Cole ultimately made it off the mountain with only a severe ankle sprain, but his story serves as a reminder of just how close the legendary WWE broadcaster came to a tragedy that could have changed everything.
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