(CNN) A mountain climber thought he'd finished the hardest part of his journey up and down Mount Rainier, but as he'd tell you now, he was wrong.

Graham Parrington and his team were on a climb headed up Washington's largest mountain last August. They had just made it to the top of were heading back down to camp when it happened — Parrington plummeted 30 feet through a crack in the ice.

Mount Rainier in Washington State.

"We were on our way back down, we'd gotten past the most dangerous parts and we could see our tents," Parrington told CNN. "And all of a sudden I disappeared into a crevasse."

He was falling, and began screaming.

"I was smashing through melting layers of snow, which broke my fall a bit," he said. "I got to the bottom, and I was dangling above a giant blade of ice."

Read More