Your basket is currently empty
A cautionary winter tale
If you are heading to the hills soon, just remember it is still winter, and conditions are still very serious as my friend found out. Read on.
Falling off mountains
How close have you come to serious harm when in the mountains ? Ever had a really close shave ? Well, I think I had one of those moments earlier in February 2011.
Whilst staying in Glen Nevis with a bunch of mountaineering friends from Down South, on Monday I ventured forth up the Glen to traverse from Glen Nevis to Aonach Mor where a few folk were going climbing and could give me a lift back.
At Steall Ruins I met another chap heading the same way though intending to return to Glen Nevis directly from Aonach Beag. As luck had it, for the first part of the ascent we had driving snow from the East, then less wind and no snow but thick clagg instead. By the time we moved on from the first summit things underfoot were still reasonably visible, later on though we were closer to white-out conditions. Not completely though, that thin white line to our right marking the end of the cornice was reasonably well identifiable and we kept an eye on it whilst moving about with map and compass.
Somehow though, as we neared the upper reaches of Aonach Beag I managed to "loose" that line momentarily. The map appears to show the ridge making a slight kink to the left whereas we continued to walk on my compass bearing straight on. Well, from one moment to the other I found myself sliding down a very steep snow slope. As I had my ice axe in hand ye olde ice axe breaking technique was quickly applied.
However, with the snow being relatively soft this only slowed my fall a little. As I wasn't sliding terribly fast I "gently" put the tips of my boots into the snow. That helped and I came to a stop.
To my left and right were equally steep snowy surfaces, the same continued beneath me with no end in sight, maybe just as well, as I think not too far below me was white air rather than white snow. Interestingly, the edge above was not actually that far away, maybe ten metres or less. The adrenalin must have stretched my perception of time whilst I was sliding, making me think I had moved longer and further than I actually did.
Meanwhile, Paul at the top shouted, to which I replied "all clear". Given that he was the less experienced of the two of us anything else would have left him in a spot of bother, too.
So I rammed the ice axe shaft vertically into the snow in front of me where it found some support from slightly firmer layers below, though not enough to stay in place when I pulled it sideways slightly. Anyway, it had to do and so I slowly stepped up kicking toes hard to get the boots onto firmer snow before moving the ice axe up another step.
Given that the cornices we had seen earlier were three metres and more deep, I had chosen a good spot to walk off the edge in that here it was only about a metre deep. When I got just below the cornice I tried to find a reasonable stance in the snow for hacking away at the cornice. It took some time but eventually I had made a gash big and deep enough that I could climb out and over without having to tackle an overhang. Further in from the edge the snow got surprisingly hard even providing a handy undercut hand-hold to hang on to whilst mantle-shelving onto the top.
After a piece of chocolate we ventured on and made it to Aonach Mor and the gondola in time as originally planned. Paul had decided by then to join me for the whole tour and get a lift back with the other chaps. We got on like a house on fire so I expect to see him again some time.
What surprised me about the whole episode was that I was completely calm whilst it happened despite the fact that I never had to use ice axe breaking in such serious circumstances before, let alone rescue myself in somewhat perilous conditions. Even when I was back on the top did I not "do a wobbly". The next morning in bed was the first time I realised how serious this could have ended, maybe not "under the daisies" but at least in hospital.
The morale is probably to back off when white-out persists as mistakes can happen even when generally paying attention and doing all the right things. Maybe the other lesson is that ice axe breaking does work, at least if you have the axe at the ready - unlike the guy who did fall off a mountain recently.
Fortunately, this episode won't put me off mountaineering or other hazardous activities such as sharing roads with drivers that find their mobile phones more interesting to watch than other road users.
Find out more
If you would like to know more about equipment and clothing for winter walking, climbing and photography you can read my winter clothing article.
Leave a comment
* denotes required fields
