Page 29 - 2021 AMA Summer

much-practised crevasse rescue of Yves. First I had to establish a belay or anchor, so I took off my skis and thrust the first one deep into the snow – to my horror the snow, about the size of a table, fell away at my feet and I was staring into a deep ice-cold blue crevasse and I was about to fall into it. Quickly I put my skis back on to spread my weight and I moved towards John. A crevasse fall is very serious. It can result in a head injury or broken bones which make extraction more difficult. In the worst case, the victim becomes wedged at the bottom, where the sides narrow, and body heat melts the ice which soon refreezes and locks the body to the ice. In this case, we knew from his shouts that Yves was uninjured and together we set up a pulley system and hauled him out, not without a few Gallic expletives on his part. Alas, he had lost a ski down the crevasse but was otherwise fine; only his
pride was hurt. We were lucky to get away so lightly from this potentially dangerous incident.
Shocked as he was he insisted on leading again, now skiing with great skill and balance on a single ski. Amazingly he soon disappeared over the lip of another crevasse but this time John had him on a tight rope and he did not go far down. Again we pulled him out but we had a long descent to make which on his one ski would have been very difficult. So we made our way to the Requin hut at the side of the glacier where the kindly guardian gave us coffee and found a spare ski for Yves to use. Our adrenalin reserves were running low – it was good to take a breath.
We were now past the Geant icefall and the crevasse risk was behind us, so we
skied down happily as far as we could to a point where the snow runs out. Here we took off our boots and put on the trainers we had packed in our rucksacks for the hike up a steep path, to join a modern metal staircase that had been built to give summer visitors easy access to the glacier. At the top of the steps was the small train station of Montenvers. This was the end of the line for a narrow-gauge railway, using a rack and pinion system, which was built in 1908 for Victorian tourists. How we wished the service was running that day, but sadly it was not so we set off for the long walk back to Chamonix. Our various diversions had set us back so the sun was setting as we reached the town where we quenched our thirsts with good French beers at the Bar National. It had been a day to remember.
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Save the planet and travel together with our brand new @Liftshare site!
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Early-season mixed conditions keep on making a brief appearance, and hopefully it won’t be long before they set in for winter.
Creagan Cha-no is the perfect venue to get those legs going again, and to scrape the rust of those axes.
Check out the SMC’s PDF mini-guide to this venue, available from the Scottish Mountaineering Press with all profits donated to the Scottish Mountaineering Trust.
MOUNTAIN TRAINING
Mountain Training is excited to announce that Rhiane Fatinikun, founder of Black Girls Hike, is now an official Mountain Training ambassador!
After being inspired by a train journey through the Peak District, Rhiane founded Black Girls Hike to challenge stereotypes and the lack of representation in the outdoors.
Read the full story at https:// www.mountain-training.org/ about/ambassadors/rhi- ane-fatinikun
ARMY ADVENTUROUS TRAINING
Army Adventurous Training Wing Ripon has finally closed its doors after 4 decades.
A ceremony has taken place at Deverell Barracks to mark the end of the Army Adventurous Training Group’s long association with Ripon and the relocation of the Wing to Halton Training Camp near to Lancaster and the Lake District.
ARMY MOUNTAINEER / 29