Typically, you’d use that method for falls of up to about 60 feet; I’ve seen cites in the past (which I can’t find now 
) of this being used for falls in the 80-90 foot range, but I don’t think you’d have any luck for much higher drops than that.
I’m sure you could design a net similar to what circus performers use. It would need to be a lot stretchier to achieve the right deceleration curve, but you could cover a lot more area with it.
Also a combination of the slippery slope and magnetic deceleration would be a good system.
1000 feet is what a person needs to reach terminal velocity.
I’d want something custom-built to safely stop a fall, as opposed to (say) a steep snowy slope. I recall reading an SI article years ago about speed skiers; participants exceed freefall terminal velocity (just read here Speed skiing - Wikipedia that the current top speed is 156mph) and crashes are pretty horrific; there’s so much friction between suit and snow that the suit fabric melts right into the skin (in addition to the world of hurt you’d be in crashing at that speed).
This brought up the discussion in some of the skydiving magazines about the possibility of exiting a plane wearing skis and aiming for a very steep snow ramp and landing that way. I think from a pure speed standpoint it’s doable but you’d want to have a mighty tall ramp that starts almost vertically and then gradually transitions to horizontal. Trying to absorb the massive change in velocity using only your knees sounds like a way to severely injure yourself.
Like the assault weapons ban? 
Exactly. If you let people jump from one foot high and survive, then you have to let people jump from two feet high and survive. Before you know it, people is jumping from 15K feet high and surviving all over the place. Damn liberals.
No it isn’t.
You can fall from any concievable height into plain water of sufficient depth without injury, much less depth.
Note that I say can, not will. There are people out there who actually do this free falling into water for fun. They usually do bridges, but airplane falls into water aren’t rare. I can’t tremeber the hieght record, but it was high enough to reach terminal velocity.
The trick apparently is to fall in such a way as to minimise terminal velocity, then to spear drop feet first into the water at the last moment. You’ll get carried down several metres but you won’t get injured if its done right.
Having said that, the people who have done it regulalry all get injured regularly as well, ranging from spinal injuries to broken bones to concussions to perforated eardrums. It’s possible to survive uninjured, but don’t expect it.
But since the question was about surviving, not being uninjured, then water definitely counts.
Several people have pointed out long falls into snow, trees, water, or shaving cream barrels, but I presume the OP had in mind something that was survivable most/all of the time by the unskilled faller.
Thus, I suggest: Falling from 15,000 feet into a 1 foot deep pit. The first 15,000 feet will be perfectly survivable.
Uh, it’s hardly as routine as you make it sound. As long as “any conceivable height” means 394 feet or less, and “you” means Harry Froboess (who still holds the World’s record at that height) you’d be correct.
(Also assumes “depth” means “death.” If you do it without depth, I guarantee you’ll achieve death.)
What about a series of stretched pieces of some sheet material (canvas maybe?). It would have just enough give to not be a splat impact, and would break under the fall, pile up a bunch of these sheets maybe 5-10 feet apart with a cushier than usual tumbling mat at the bottom and it may slow you enough. Or am I thinking with movie logic again?
-
If the “large pit” is dug deep enough, and sufficiently lined, you can rely on gravity itself to break your fall.
-
A large, very deep spring, with something to grab you, preventing you from being thrust skyward again.
-
Water balloons. Loose water could drown you, but this way you only have water from the ones that broke your fall.
-
Helium balloons covered by a net. You break through the net and some of the balloons, then the remainder of the balloons carry you to the surface.
An asteroid?
If the large pit is dug really deep enough, it won’t be a problem at all… but you’ll end up in China.
That was my point . . . but you’d eventually wind up at the center of the earth.
Here’s a pretty comprehensive set of “what if this happens to you” advice from The Free Fall Research Page. They also have a wealth of information on other survivors of falls from great heights – some with less obvious “cushion” than Flt. Sgt. Alkemade.
Ah, you’re thinking of the old “awning” method: Jump off a building then fall through a series of awnings, brushing off your shoulders as you smoothly land feet first. Who did that? Buster Keaton?
Jackie Chan in “Project A Part 2”. Did it twice. First time he landed on his neck. He imitated Keaton’s stunt from “Steamboat Bill Jr” where a man stands in front of a house, the entire front wall peels off and falls on top of him, the hero living because he’s standing exactly where a small open window in the wall falls around him.
The awning stunt is preceded by another gag where Chan duplicates Harold Lloyd’s classic clock-hang sequence from “Safety Last”.
At terminal velocity, air is pushing upward on your body with a force equivalent to exactly 1 g, or 1 times your weight. Any other fluid will decelerate you in proportion to its density as compared with air.
Example: water is about 830 times as dense as air. Fall from a few thousand feet into a swimming pool, and you will experience a peak deceleration of about 830 g’s when you hit the water. Those suicidal folks who jump from the Golden Gate bridge? They generally don’t drown, they die from blunt-trauma injuries when the hit the surface of the water - broken bones, shattered skulls, that sort of thing.
In terms of density, any liquid is going to be much closer to water than air. And any really heavy gas (such as uranium hexafluoride, about 4.2x as dense as air) won’t slow you to a safe velocity for final impact with the ground (< ~5 mph).
If you don’t mind wearing additional equipment, you could adopt an aero/hydrodynamic shape so you can drop into water without resulting in fatal decel. The combination of decel and buoyancy would be able to bring you to a complete stop without a hard-ground impact. The problem of course is that if you adopt a shape that’s “slippery” in water, you’re also going to achieve a higher terminal velocity in the air before impact. You’d want to do some simulations before trying a live test.
What about a giant fan that blew up air at two hundred miles an hour. When you fall at it, you slow down until you’re hovering above it. Or, if you’re too skinny, you fall straight in for a noble death.
I don’t know about thousands of feet, but a friend of mine once fell from 50 feet without injury. He left a six-foot deep hole in the mud at the bottom, though.