BLUEMOMENT

Rather horrific video, from a helmet camera, of solo climber dislodged by chunk of ice from a party above him - http://vimeo.com/61338753.

According to the BMC website, Parsley Fern Lefthand Gully is a Grade II winter climb, which roughly means fairly straightforward sbow climbs with some shortish manageable ice pitches.

Shard wrote:Rather horrific video, from a helmet camera, of solo climber dislodged by chunk of ice from a party above him - http://vimeo.com/61338753.

According to the BMC website, Parsley Fern Lefthand Gully is a Grade II winter climb, which roughly means fairly straightforward sbow climbs with some shortish manageable ice pitches.

Never climbed due to lack of moral fibre but was suitably scared by the vid.

Wowsers...presumably he climbed right back up to the other climber to give him his piece of ice back...
Some understatement at the end...

In theory, in a fall, you're supposed to turn to face the ice with one hand on the head of the ice (under your shoulder) and the other gripping the lower part of the shaft, gradually applying more pressure on the pick as it bites into the ice, thus slowing down the descent. Putting the pick in too quickly can result in it being jerked out of your grip.

That manoeuvre might have been easier when most climbers wore woollen breeks and pullovers (as they generally did until the 70s and 80s), but today's artificial fibres don't provide the same friction as they just don't adhere as easily to ice. I was quite shaken by the acceleration of the fall - a couple seconds (or less) and the arresting manoeuvre became completely unmanageable; scary stuff. The guy was very lucky .

I don't know the climb or that area (somewhere in Wales). It seems that in real life the climber is a safety consultant, which is fine. Risk assessment plays a big part in climbing, but in winter, the objective risks are much greater.

Here's a nice pic of a practice self arrest;



- pic from Glenmore Lodge

Trouble is, you only ever practice these manoeuvres on relatively gentle slopes.....

I once demonstrated my ice-axe braking technique to my daughter.
The pick hit something solid in the ice and bounced out. The chisel end of the axe hit me on the bridge of my nose and the red trail ran for about 100 yards as my lifeblood pumped out.
Eventually the heel of my left crampon stopped my descent with such a force that it compacted my knee joint eventually forcing a cartiledge operation. This took place in about 1980. I still limp.

claymore wrote:I once demonstrated my ice-axe braking technique to my daughter.
The pick hit something solid in the ice and bounced out. The chisel end of the axe hit me on the bridge of my nose and the red trail ran for about 100 yards as my lifeblood pumped out.
Eventually the heel of my left crampon stopped my descent with such a force that it compacted my knee joint eventually forcing a cartiledge operation. This took place in about 1980. I still limp.

In the early 1970s I was in a group practising ice axe braking. An English lad hit his eyebrow with his axe's adze which split it, making a right mess. At the local doctors, getting it stitched, he was terrified as the doctor (who had a severe drink problem), while trying to hold the needle in his extremely shaky hand, said, "Ah hate bluddy climbers. And as fur the feckin English...."

Sounds a nice chap.
A similar attitude prevailed when I worked on the lifts in Aviemore.
Tiny minds

claymore wrote:Sounds a nice chap.

He was a right horror. The locals tried to avoid using his services if at all possible. The owner of the hostel I normally stayed at slashed the palm of his hand with a carving knife one Saturday night and, rather than visit the local doc, kept it parcelled up and lived with it through Sunday (no Sunday trains then) before catching the first train to Inverness on Monday.

The final straw came when said doc attended a a fairly serious car collision and tried to pull a woman out of one of the the cars. He was too drunk to notice that her feet were trapped and, as he pulled, her broken legs were stretching. This was witnessed by medics who had been travelling in the other car and, after receiving some fairly pointed advice, he handed in his resignation.