We had made it to the middle of the range, finally! We were on schedule for the first time since the beginning of our trip. Surrounding us were peaks with large open glaciers that separated us from everything else in the world. Our camp was on dry ground, set up on a rock outcropping that held a respectable view of the surrounding area.
The first day on site, we practiced snow anchors again, then were given a short lesson on crevasse rescue and how it was supposed to work; all in a very relaxed setting, no stress, just standing there comfortably.
During the CHAI meeting the following goals were set for us at the location: 1) summit one of the half dozen surrounding peaks; and 2) practice crevasse rescue.
It was decided to do crevasse rescue first, then attempt a peak the following day. The thought was to have an 'easy' day, come back to camp early, bed down and get a good night's sleep. This, in turn, would allow an early wake up, tag the summit, come back and crash without having to worry about the rescuing piece. Translation: work before you play.
Packs on back at 0930 the next morning with things you would need to stay warm and nothing else. What a concept, only take layers, a day pack basically. No need to strike camp, no heavy packs, just water and a few snacks and layers. Life was good. The next morning we tied into our rope teams and set off toward the crevasses.
Rope Team Travel
Moving on glaciers is an art, knowing where there are potential cracks called crevasses, where the glacier has broken because it could not handle the forces put on it, where travel will be easy, and where travel will be hard. Sometimes groups will have to cross crevasses and while there are signs and tricks to see and avoid holes, one can never be "too safe".
Any time we were on a glacier, we were roped up. Each rope had a head and a tail with a person or two in between, all tied together with a knot through the harness and then up through the "hero loop", then to the next climber. A hero loop is a piece of webbing that is tired to one of the shoulder straps of the pack. The strap has a carabiner attached to it and a rope is clipped through in order to keep the climber safe. The trick was leaving the person in front of you enough rope so they aren't pulled back, but being 'close' enough to catch them should they fall. The distance from our hero loop to where the rope touched the ground was supposed to be a ski tip away from where we were.
Progress at first was slow and rough as we were trying to find the pace that worked for everyone on the team. Out tallest member was 6'5", our shortest, just under 5'6". When the tall person took one step the shorter people would have to take two or three to keep up. The trick was to find a comfortable pace for everyone in the team. It took us a while to make that work. We traveled in rope teams for each others safety, to protect each other from falls.
Another consideration was what kind of terrain separated members of the rope teams. It was important to keep that in mind so you aren't dragging your team members uphill as you start to drop down the other side. Just like anything else it took time to master. By the last snow days, we were covering two or three times the distance we were in our first few days.
We marched quickly toward the crevasse, unencumbered as our packs are very light. Just under 2 hours later we arrived and probed an area so we could un-rope. Jorn then asked for a couple of volunteers. By this time I had learned whatever Jorn did, I should do, if he asked for volunteers, volunteer so you don't psych yourself out watching someone else go first.
Here is what the math looks like; you have a 50m rope, one guy on each end, one in the middle, that means there is about 60ft of rope between the first and the second person. Add a couple feet of rope stretch and the total falling distance that I calculated was about 35 feet or so. That is a long way to fall, but it was made worse because I KNEW it was going to happen, It wasn't like it could happen, it WOULD happen. And in the next 5 minutes my instructors would ask me to walk off the edge.
In an imperfect world the leader 'falls' into a crevasse, the second and third team members self arrests catching the fall, then the third person builds an anchor and pulley system to haul you out. That was the theory. Chase was to go first, he just smiled and walked off the edge like it was no big deal, no scream, no yell, just silence. As soon as Chase had gone over the edge I turned to watch Nial get pulled off of his feet and fly five feet before he landed and self-arrested catching the fall. It became very real for me.
Then it was my turn.
I looked over my shoulder to encourage my team members, then started toward the edge.
"Just don't stop, just don't stop, just don't stop..." I made the mistake of looking down two paces before the edge. "Ohhhhh man, that's a long way down." Both the proverbial angel on my left shoulder and the proverbial devil on my right looked at each other and said, "Oooooh-no", then in unison told me to stop what ever that looked like. I didn't stop, because if I did I would have to go through the entire process again.
In one more pace my boots gave way beneath me and I fell. Will they catch me? I wondered, and then like a rubber band the rope bunched in front of my eyes and then was yanked taunt with a violent jerk. The rope running through the hero loop to my harness yanked me upright before my harness caught me. My pelvis wasn't snapped by the force of the fall because the hero loop pulled me upright as the rope was pulled taunt. The devil on my shoulder cursed like a sailor and the angel just nodded his agreement. That was scary! However my fall had been stopped, and there was nothing to do but hang out, and hope my heart rate would soon return to normal.
It happened about that quickly. Soon a third person had joined us in the crevasse and we waited for our respective rope teams to build the pulley system and haul us out. It was a weird experience being in the crevasse. The walls were white and icy blue. Looking below me, the wall continued for another 50 feet until the snow floor below. I noticed a dark blue and purple hole about the size of a VW Bug in the snow floor; that wasn't the floor but a thin snow bridge the covered the rest of the crevasse. My stomach turned; had my team not caught me no one would have ever seen me again.
It was rumored that Jorn had fallen into a crevasse unroped and had gotten out to climb another day. I can neither confirm nor deny the truth of that rumor but it wasn't to far fetched with how often he had been in the mountains. And so once again, the myth of Jorn grew.
So we hung. And we hung. Annnnd... we hung. Chase finally started to go up and was soon over the lip. The other fallen climber made her ascent and was up and out. I hung my legs having lost all feeling by now. Jeff popped his head over and asked how I was doing to which I responded "just fine". He said to hang tight, my team mates were working on the pulley system; it shouldn't be that much longer. My thoughts drifted as I began to ponder, wandering form topic to topic.
The rope pulled tight dragging me out of dream land and back into reality where I hung confused for the first minute or two wondering where I was. It all came rushing back, but it took a second before it did. I was pulled up three inches at a time until I reached the lip of the crevasse where I yelled at the team until they stopped pulling. During the fall, the rope had cut into the edge of the crevasse a good three feet and was being pulled directly from my harness to the anchor, in a straight line. We had been told about this before hand, and how critical it was to listen closely for the fallen climber's voice so they did not get crushed on the lip.
I clawed madly at the lip with my gloved hands trying to free myself from the edge and stand once again upon the surface. It was a struggle for a good five minutes as I dug from the bottom and Grant dug from the top. I felt good enough for the team to haul me up another few feet and so they slowly pulled watching for me to give the cut-off signal in case I became crushed during the pull if the pressure was too much, I gave the cut off and back to digging we went. Another five minutes went by and we repeated the process. Another three inches closer to the top. This was SLOW going! After resetting the pulley system, they asked if I was ready. I nodded, trying desperately to help in any way possible.
Cole, the climber pulling me out, was maybe 120 lbs and I had at least 50 lbs on him. They pulled slowly, moving the rope through the prusik knot and pulling it taut. I swung my boots into the wall of the crevasse trying to find purchase without success. Reset the pulley and go again, I swung my boots against the sidewall desperately, all they were hitting was dry powder; then a muted thump sound and my spirits soared, the snow was firm enough to let me kick in a step. I waited for them to reset the pulley and told them they were almost done, they pulled and I stood on my good leg compressing the snow beneath my boot into a solid foothold. They reset the pulley system quickly as I had relieved tension on the system by taking my own weight allowing the rope to slide through. I worked on a platform for my left foot as they did so and set my foot ready to stand up when they were ready. They pulled and I all but ran up the remaining few feet and cheered loudly for my team and that I was out.
I had been down there hanging for over an hour; I couldn't feel my legs.
Then it was my turn to haul someone out. On paper it is a very simple operation; catch the fall, build an anchor, build the pulley system, haul the climber out. I wondered as I stood as the third member of the rope team if I would have to help catch the fall or would Grant, the second in the team, catch the entire thing. Stig walked toward the edge and disappeared quicker then I thought possible. I fell on my ax waiting for force to be transferred to me to help catch the fall; Grant caught the load leaving me free to go about my way. Walking up quickly to Grant I checked to make sure that he was uninjured caused by catching the fall; he was ok. I dropped my pack beside him so he could hand me equipment as I needed it. I pulled snow anchors from his pack and lay them out in the snow. I marked an X beneath the spot that I wanted the power point of my anchor to lay, I then laid out the two pickets, snow anchors, and aligned their webbing so the ends lay on the X, then started digging the troughs to slide them into.
This is a lot of work. We were instructed to dig to a depth that would allow us to put our arm down the pit from finger tips to elbows. It took me 20 minutes to set the two pickets and build the point. Making the exercise as realistic as possible we were wearing the layers we would be wearing out on a normal day. By the time I had the anchor built, I was in my hiking pants and my t-shirt. My hat was pulled off in an attempt to keep my glasses from fogging over; it was work.
After the power-point was constructed the next step was to take Grant out of the system, transferring weight to the anchor and off of Grant. Taking one of my prusik cords from my harness, I tied an eight on a bight, then attached this to the rope just below my power-point and clipped the eight through the carabiner. After double checking my work, I had Grant lean forward, loading the prusik and transfering Stig's weight to the anchor. Belaying myself out to the edge, I asked Stig if he was okay. He was, I informed him of the progress I had made. I then attached another prusik to the rope closer to the edge and clipped a carabiner to that. I then ran the tail from Grant's end above the anchor to the carabiner and back, creating the pulley system I would need to haul up Stig. I had Grant hold the prusik beneath the anchor so I could pull the rope through system and then have the knot catch the rope when I needed allowing the rope to only go one way. After that had been checked, I took my backpack as far out to the edge as I dared and muscled it beneath the rope so that the rope would float on the surface of the snow and not cut deeper. I informed Stig I was going to haul him out soon to which he gave me thumbs-up. All of this work, and the hard part hadn't even started. I pulled with all of my might and barely moved the rope. I struggled onward and pulled and pulled finally making progress. I then had to reset the prusiks and do the entire thing again. The next two pulls I had help from four or five other team members, and we quickly had Stig just beneath the lip. I started digging carefully with the shovel to free Stig from the lip. A few more pulls and he was up and moving. I was exhausted. It was the most real part of the trip for me.
Most of the group had done all three roles; lead, second, and third. We packed up and started back to camp and were back in out tents in just over an hour. I looked at my watch: it read 1502. I was more exhausted than I had been on the entire trip. I was worn out physically and mentally. The group meeting wasn't until after dinner and I was able to rest until that time. I drifted off to sleep in as few layers as possible. The sun was out and hot, and the warmth felt good.
Tomorrow will be a big day. but with light packs, I could really get used to this lifestyle.
Z
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