A climber had a miraculous escape when he fell 50 feet down a cliff at Cheddar Gorge.

The climber, in his 20s and from Bristol, landed on a ledge close to a huge boulder.

If he had landed on the rock experts say he could have been killed or suffered devastating injuries.

But on Monday afternoon, just 25 hours after the drama, he was released from Frenchay Hospital, Bristol, whose staff said the way his rescue was handled helped ensure his swift recovery.

A Coastguard helicopter joined more than a dozen expert climbers and a paramedic in the rescue at lunch time on Saturday.

The injured man was around 450ft up on Heart Leaf Bluff on the National Trust-owned side of the gorge when he fell, still attached to his rope, and landed in one of the huge nets used to catch loose rocks.

He was part of a group of five Bristol climbers, who raised the alarm.

Volunteers from Avon & Somerset Search & Rescue were soon on the scene, together with Rich Marlow, the South Western Ambulance Cheddar area ambulance manager, who is also an expert climber.

Mr Marlow climbed up the cliff and into the net to assess the man’s injuries while dozens of Devon & Somerset firefighters, who had also been alerted, waited below.

The gorge road was closed to traffic during the rescue at lunch time on Saturday.

When Mr Marlow diagnosed possible spinal injuries rescuers called for a helicopter, and a Portland-based Coastguard helicopter flew more than 60 miles to airlift the patient and fly him another 20 miles to Frenchay Hospital, Bristol.

At first it was thought that the climber’s injuries might be life-changing, but he was released from hospital yesterday afternoon after treatment including a scan.

Duncan Massey, Avon & Somerset Search & Rescue’s chief rescue officer, and the first of the team at the scene, said yesterday(Sunday): “He had been climbing up Heart Leaf, which is like a tiered wedding cake, and was about 450 feet above the level of the road when he fell.

“Landing inside the catch net made it more technically difficult for us to get him out.

“If he hadn’t fallen into the net he would have been left dangling from his rope.

“He was only about 60ft from the top, but it was easier for us to climb up to him.

“We sent in spinal injury equipment – a vacuum mattress and a Ked splint. The mattress is like a beach lilo with polystyrene balls inside.

“When it’s inflated it’s rigid and wraps around the patient keeping him completely flat. We decided the best way out for him then was by helicopter.

“Rich Marlow is part of the cliff rescue team as well as being the local ambulance manager and its great that he lives so near, at Shipham.

“I’ve just been told by the hospital that the climber has been released, and that the speed and skill of those at the scene saved him from further injury.

“The fall was just one of those things. They were doing the right things in the right place.”

Avon & Somerset Search & Rescue was formed by amalgamating the Avon Gorge and Cheddar Gorge volunteer cliff rescue services, and has expanded to carry out a wider rescue role in landscape which can be treacherous for the unwary.

In more than 30 years the volunteers have undertaken more than 700 rescues. The service was called out 86 times last year.