Page 30 - RAFMA Winter 2003

Questions you wish you'd never asked - "Richard, do I need to take out personal insurance for JSAM?"
- I should have realised this was tempting fate!
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I hod partnered up with^Sam Marsholl (Army) for JSAM and had successfully climbed a nj^mSer af erfoyoble routes with him. We then heauk Darruen (Army) ond R6b (RMpntended to climb the South Ridge
de Zirol, so in the true spirit of jointery, bags were packed and we Rnea<dad from Zermat on the marathon hike to Schonbielhutte.
The tnext moriwng s<xa. us up at 'crack of sparrows' (3.30am) and heoding do to the gldtifc-below the South Ridge, climbing as 2 ropes. The pull up to the st^rBW the route was steep and uneventfully, but things were soon to choftje. The first obstacle (and the start of the climb) was the 4m abseil into a breche, followed by a 6m climb out. Damipn and Rob descended first, foltewed by Sam and myself. As l.got to the bottom of the gap, Rob had already started clinnbiao out of Jhat looked a straightforward scramble. My initial problerMHp recoveiVg the abseil rope, which hod conveniently lodged itself a W ie top o f the climb; fortunately a very helpful Frenchman freed it.
As Damien followed Rob up the route, Sam set off with me belaying him from a large flake at the foot of the abseil. Damien was just stepping off a lorge phone kiosk size boulder, when it suddenly broke loose causing chaos to ensue. I have often heard of people giving accounts of how time slows during accidents, and for me this was the case. The big bugger went hurtling down to the glacier some 2500ft below; the noise was unbelievable; Ihank God it missed us. One however, about the size of a wide screen TV, was about to hit Sam when it veered off and aimed for me. Unf^Amately, the belay didn't have any slack and my chances of escope'^rfre none. As the rock came onto my legs all I could think of was "itjpoing to break" and watched it bend under the pressure. The next second the rock rolled onto my other leg, well and truly pinning me dowm.
Meanwhile, Sam appeored to be holding half the crag up, unable to move should more rocks come down on me. He later commented on looking down and seeing me buried up to my knees in,debrie and wondering how the hell they were going to get me out. Eventually I managed to prize myself free, unclip from the belay and try to escape the fall line; it was at this point that I found the rope completely buried, bar 1/2 m - glad it was the Navy Pusser's rope and not mine!
Somewhat in pain I
moved to a flat rock and
enjoyed the, bedside manner of
Nurse Sam. On closer inspection I
had a sizeable hole to the bone in my
shin, together with a number of heavily
bleeding gashes. I could feel myself going
intp shock and was prescribed "Duncans"
chocolate for a suspected broken leg. The
next issue was how to get me out! In true
military fashion a series of cunnina^pulleys and an improvised stretcher was considered, with self-rescue^echniques running highest on the agenda. It was at this pointd^Rt the Frenchman sensibly suggested calling a helicopter, which^rfs duly summoned. All we now had to do was make ourselves con^dpable and wait.
» It took some timeJ q jB te last rock to stop echoing from the glacier below, and it was a ^ ^ w h e n things went quiet did we realise the full enormity of fc^yjiwiter we had so narrowly missed. The superb panoramic viMWajMW.Schobiel glacier and across to the Wandflue was lost by the enMtlfl^iT the situation. Soon we heard the helicopter and moments lat^Rf *swept into view, well chugged anyway! I looked in horror as TM i w r||,s smallest helicopter hovered overhead and an Oakley clad adro^Tor Milk Tray descended on a length of thread - "Oh my god, that wire looks very thin!" He briefly looked at Sam's handiwork and said "we take you somewhere to belter look at you", whilst clipping a karabina through my harness. Now I began to panic. Here I was about to be winched on my climbirjgtrhamess, qnd he hadn't even checked to see if it had
LearntAbout
UNTAINEERING from that.....! B y R t L t S im o n M o o r e
r j r
/'■
2nu! - MatterhornJit ^ ppekgrouqd.
3 0 RAFMA Journal 2003
been damaged - at this point I most definitely did! Next thing I was literally whipped off the mountain and flown over the ridge as a HUSLE; for the uneducated this" is the RAF's term for 'Helicopter Under-
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