Late in the day one winter, a friend and I were just coming down from a winter snow/ice climb in Scotland and faced a very steep descent on hard snow. I made the decision not to put crampons back on and belayed my friend over the edge onto the slope. He then started to belay me down. I slipped, fell and knocked him and the belay off down the slope. i largely tumbled and slid the couple of hundred feet down the hill eventually managing to brake with my ice-axe before hitting the boulder field at the bottom. I was shaken but unhurt but the fall put my partner’s knee out of action.
It took us a very long time to cover the few miles back to the car with only 3 legs between the two of us and me carrying our two bags of kit and having to hold him whilst he limped along.
This is always the reason , now I don’t activate much these days I always end my Contact with all activators as a chaser with “Safe Descent” or “be careful on the way down.” I have been lucky in this, having only had a couple of mishaps that were not serious enough but still makes you think about “what could have been”
I remember an occasion when I and my partner had just ice climbed Dorsal Arete Direct on Stob Corrie nan Lochan in Glencoe. In those days the pub shut at 2200 and we would have to hurry to get a drink so we decided to “bummade” down the snow of Broad Gully. For those who don’t know, bummading was sliding down steep snow on your backside while steering and braking with your ice axe, though on this occasion steering was unnecessary since there was already a well worn bummading groove which added extra speed. My friend was leading, and near the bottom he suddenly decided to brake. Not having had sufficient warning I collided with him, fortunately I was in time to swing my feet up and out of the way so he didn’t end up with my crampons embedded in him! Over a well-earned pint and a hot Bridie we decided that next time a warning and a bit more seperation would be a good idea!
