A young man has been rescued five hours after an 80-metre mountain fall. (Source: LifeFlight)

Jake McCollum thought he was done for when he fell 80 meters from a section of mountain he did not mean to climb.

The 18-year-old fell from a pinnacle near the summit of Queensland’s Mount Walsh — the peak he had set out to climb on his first solo bushwalk on November 30.

He suffered a fractured spine, broken ribs, internal bleeding and a head injury. His phone was smashed and unusable.

Jake McCollum took this picture just before he fell 80 metres. (Supplied: LifeFlight)

“The wind was knocked out of me and I remember thinking it was probably all over for me,” Mr McCollum said.

“I didn’t really think it was survivable.”

But he remembered his parents had insisted he take a personal locator beacon (PLB), which he was able to activate and alert federal authorities.

Jake McCollum was on the phone to his mother for more than five hours, despite it being damaged in his fall. (Supplied: LifeFlight)

Not long after, as Mr McCollum lay on the ground, his mother Rachel received a call from Canberra and frantically began calling his broken mobile phone.

He said about 30 minutes after the fall he heard his mother’s frantic calls coming through his Bluetooth headphones, which had fallen from his ears nearby.

Mr McCollum mustered the strength to crawl over to them and answer.

Jake McCollum didn’t realise he wasn’t on the main public trail of Mount Walsh in the North Burnett. (Supplied: LifeFlight/Rhys Jones)

Ms McCollum said her heart sank when her son finally answered.

“I heard really, really faintly: ‘Mum, I’m hurt really bad’,” she said.

“My knees went — it’s probably the worst news you can ever hear.”

Ms McCollum and husband Tim stayed on the phone with their son as they undertook the 90-minute drive from their Bundaberg home to Mount Walsh, relaying messages to authorities searching for him.

Resources deployed

The fact that Mr McCollum did not walk up the main Mount Walsh trail led to difficulties because that was the track authorities were searching.

LifeFlight Aircrew officer Shayne White said the PLB signal was also bouncing off the rock face, making it difficult to pinpoint Mr McCollum’s location.

LifeFlight said the search for Jake McCOllum was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. (Supplied: LifeFlight/Rhys Jones)

“He was wearing all black, was face down in the mountain’s shadow and well-hidden under a thick canopy of foliage,” Mr White said.

Ms McCollum said her son started to go long stretches without speaking.

After a few hours his headphone batteries died, but he could still faintly hear his parents through his smashed phone nearby.

Text messages exchanged between Jake McCollum’s father, Tim McCollum, and Queensland Police during the search. (Supplied: LifeFlight)

Mr McCollum thought the ordeal was over when he first heard a helicopter.

“But then it went right past me,” he said.

“I was talking through the phone and saying, ‘It’s gone past me, it’s gone past me.’

“It was back and forth for quite a while.”

The LifeFlight medical team winched down and walked through dense scrub to get to Jake McCollum. (Supplied: LifeFlight)

Five hours after the fall, Mr White spotted Mr McCollum’s legs.

“We had to come down low to hover before we could actually see him,” Mr White said.

The rescue crew took more than an hour to stabilise Mr McCollum before carrying him on a special stretcher out of the scrub to be winched out by a helicopter.

LifeFlight critical care doctor Kit Harvey, Jake McCollum and aircrew officer Shayne White. (Supplied: LifeFlight)

Mrs McCollum said the headphones saved her son.

“It could have taken days to locate him,” she said.

“We’re one of the lucky ones — we get to hug our kid at night, so we’re so very thankful.”