Crevasse Rescue

Long story, but will cut it short....

In the summer of 2012 me and Paul went mountaineering in the Vallee Blanche, Chamonix, France. It was an amazing day.

Just a few days ago we had been talking about crevasses and crevasse rescue. we had kind of got all the details and agreed we had plenty of info to deal with one if necessary.

Two very happy mountaineers! At one point lots of massive dark holes were around us. Oh dear, god knows I didn't like to be around crevasses at this moment and time. We crossed one, second, third and fourth one but the fifth one didn't look as dangerous as others. I didn't liked the idea of crossing that one so i went a bit to the side,. I kind of walked around it. oooohhh all good. I was about 20 meters away from Paul when I shouted to him not to cross over, as it didn't feel right -(.

 My heart started to beat like crazy, for some reason I knew what was going to happen next..... I have braced myself down on to the snow, dug my feet and ice axe in to the ice. Within seconds Paul started to fall down the crevasse. I started to be pulled in as well. Despite all my effort I have ended up following him into  it. I woke up, I must have been unconscious for a few seconds. I had a massive pain in my right arm. I was to scared to look at it in case it was broken. So I have pulled my sleeves down and I started to freak out.

I  was screaming, shouting... luckily the rope had got stuck on the top of the slab of snow that hung over the edge of the crevasse. I was dangling in the air and Paul was deeper down, resting on a bit of ice ledge. A few times the rope cut into the snow and I was lowered down. This was scary.  It was very important to get an ice screw into the ice wall near me as soon as possible to secure ourselves from falling down even further.

Ice screw in!!!! I have attached myself and Paul to it. I started slowly to climb up. I mean very slowly. As we had only walking/mountaineering equipment (not ice climbing equipment) it was difficult to climb up. Each time I tried to climb the wall my axe just wouldn't cut in and take a grip. Some time later I had made a small amount of progress two more hours and we would have been out....maybe!

Photo: Paul inside the crevasse

But then, I could hear peoples voices. It was french mountaineers walking back to the cable car, after their climb. They lowered their rope down, then shouted "don't be afraid the helicopter rescue is coming". What??? Noooo!!!Whyyyy??? I was thinking inside my head, we were nearly out, no need for the helicopter. But few moment later we had been rescued from the crevasse by the French Mountain Rescue Team. I was very cold and looked blue and may be even close to hypothermia I got first ride on the helicopter directly in to the hospital, after an examination, lot's of pills and liquid, I was out and about getting ready for another adventure. Tomorrow Mt Blanc :-)  

Photo: Paul and Me, top of Mt Blanc

Thank you!!!

P.S. I would like to thank French Mountain Rescue Team and two french mountaineers for saving our life's.