UKC

Yesterday a team was behind us on green gully. Im not sure what happened, and don't want to speculate, but suddenly there was a guy lying on the snow at the start of the route shouting for help continuously. I was just seconding the final pitch when the shouting started. 

I tried to shout back but I don't think he could hear me. Im sorry I couldn't do more to help. It seemed like the guy was obviously in a bad way and sounded alone. I phoned mountain rescue and gave them a description and location. I know it probably didn't feel like it but we could hear you. 

If anyone knows what happened i would be really grateful if they could let me know, basically if the guy was okay? I heard the helicopter come in a little later.

I know similar threads previous have been considered insensitive, not looking for details, would just like to know if the guys are okay. Fingers crossed it wasn't as bad as it seemed. 

In reply to Kemics:

Coastguard AW189 ‘RESCUE151’, responded to a shout in the Nevis area mid to late afternoon. It returned to Inverness late evening from the QE hospital in Glasgow, not sure if this was in connection to the original shout or a retasking whilst in the area.

In reply to Kemics:

Purely second hand info…

Some people I know were able to get to him before the chopper, broken pelvis so not ideal, but could have been worse too.

In reply to Kemics:

https://m.facebook.com/groups/382413241933296/

In reply to Kemics:

From the fb post:  

Hope they're both ok. Can't believe how many people seem to be falling off this past week or so.

In reply to jezb1:

Yeah incredibly lucky considering. Conditions were very poor and slushy. They were on the belay next to us and I turned round and they were gone. I had kind of hoped (clutching at straws) that they had started bailing and maybe had abbed off the end of the rope near the bottom. But to think they took the full fall is sickening, they were basically at the top. Glad they made it. 

In reply to Mowglee:

Ah, I read the "thought the group might like this" opener and assumed it couldn't possibly be recounting a rather nasty fall...

In reply to Mowglee:

Very lucky to survive such a fall.  I hope they recover well and fast.

This year's snow and ice buildup has been on the thin side - January was a write-off and only in Feb did things really get going.  Grade IIIs like Good Friday Climb and Queen's View both sported cruxes which were longer and steeper than I've seen previously.  Good value is one way of describing them.

In reply to Jamie Hageman:

Then throw thaw conditions into the mix...

In reply to DaveHK:

Indeed

In reply to Kemics:

Hi everyone, this is Adam. I was in the fall along with my friend and climbing partner Chris. We did basically both fall the entire length of Green Gully. Wasn’t expecting to wake up but miraculously did and went to check on Chris, he was conscious but unable to move with a dislocated hip. Both of our phones were smashed so was unable to call mountain rescue. I have a broken ankle and a broken rib but could move so managed to walk down a bit and find help. I found two people, someone called Fraser and his friend, who were both exceptionally helpful. We called mountain rescue from Frasers phone and then came back up to stay with Chris and keep him as warm as possible. Mountain rescue came a couple of hours later and took him in an air ambulance to Glasgow. He had surgery on his dislocated hip in the early hours of Sunday morning and they also found small fractures in his neck and back which they are getting scanned today. He has full function of his arms and legs so they don’t suspect any spinal damage. We’ll know more today but he should make a full recovery. 
 

The team in front of us were Klaus and Guy (I think) so both of us just want to say thank you for following up. It was nice to meet you on the route. 

We also can’t thank Fraser and his friend enough (sorry can’t remember the friends name) for helping us though the whole ordeal. We were both in shock at the time so didn’t thank you enough during the incident but you saved my friend Chris by staying with us until mountain rescue arrived. 
 

Wishing everyone well

Adam

In reply to captain paranoia:

It does come off a bit tacky. But looking down the page, it seems to be that guy's default text when reposting something in the group rather than a specific opener for that story.

In reply to arushton02:

I'd kind of assumed 'the length of green gully' bit was exaggerated as I can't understand how anyone would survive that - but very glad you did, and are relatively unscathed. Maybe buy a lottery ticket! Hope you and your partner heal up well. If, in due course, you can post anything about what caused the fall I'm sure it would be helpful for others - there's a weird silence around the causes of accidents but I'm sure some useful lessons could be learned.

Best wishes,

 

In reply to arushton02:

Wow, I am beyond glad to hear that! That's amazing. It was pretty intense/emotionally haunting to climb out while hearing the shouts echoing round the Corrie. I just kept thinking what an unbearably awful situation for you to be in and how isolated and vulnerable it must have felt. Honestly, knowing where you had fallen from I assumed the worst, to hear both of you are neither dead nor paralysed is a miracle. I realise I don't know you from Adam but have spent a lot of the last couple days thinking about you, to hear your okay is big relief, happy for you both and your families! 

In reply to Kemics:

What a brilliant outcome from an event you'd think almost guaranteed to be a tragedy. Phew!

In reply to Kemics:

Well done on alerting the MRT and also for following up on here.  I hope that, if I ever have a crisis like that, I have someone like you around.

Out of interest, does anyone but me carry a whistle these days?  I last used it in earnest in about 1990 in Avon Gorge, but we were able to "tell" the team in trouble that they'd been heard.

In reply to Moacs:

Yup, I've got one of those orange whistles that just lives in the lid of my rucksack. A lot of rucksacks also have one on the chest strap. They aren't as loud but better than nothing. I very much hope never to need either. 

In reply to Moacs: The worth of a whistle was demonstrated to me in a similar context only two weeks ago, also on the Ben. Whilst on the first pitch of Point Five Gully we became conscious of distant but repeated whistle blasts coming from the Observatory Gully direction. Clearly someone in distress. There were a fair number of others visible in the corrie and on Tower Ridge but after a while when the whistles persisted we called MRT to check the alarm had been raised (it had been) and volunteer any help required. A rescue was subsequently carried out of two climbers, I understand, on Tower Ridge with the whistle serving to assist MRT in locating them. For something so small and cheap, a whistle is a really effective bit of contingency kit.

In reply to Moacs:

I always carry my trusty Fox 40 attached to my compass. So far I’ve only ever used it in earnest to recall a young collie with intent on a mountain hare lunch. The end to that tale is probably best for another thread.

Glad the involved are both well

In reply to George.D:

Carry two, one on my jacket zip and the other on the chest strap of my pack. Used it once few years back when walking across the Cairngorm plateau in next to zero visibility conditions, when I got a brief glimpse of a couple of walkers off to my side. Somehow I knew they were lost and got their attention using my whistle. Turned out they had no kit except for what they were wearing and I ended up having to walk them off. 

Absolutely fantastic news that the two guys from the fall are both well and relatively unscathed, hope you both make a speedy recovery 👍🏻

In reply to Moacs:.

Always. Always. Always.

Never used it, and hope I never have to. But as others have said, for such a cheap lightweight piece of kit I can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t.

In reply to Moacs:

Whistles: always, one fastened on a loop in jacket, another lives with my prussiks and knife on my harness. So winter or summer I've usually got one. 

To fallers, you are thankfully very lucky! Falling with crampons on, axes flailing on leashes, screws etc on harness there's a lot can go wrong apart from the impact itself. Hope you recover fast enough to get back out for a hobble this year. 

In reply to Kemics:

Funny how things work out sometimes. We went up for the weekend but broke down at Tyndrum so after pickup rescue back home we didn't even manage to put on our boots. Green Gully was on the hitlist with some other ice'y routes. It seems the conditions have been a bit slushy from what little I'm reading and I'm wondering if we dodged a bit of a crap trip.

Glad to hear the 2 climbers lived to tell the tale, hoping for a quick recovery to them both and great to read that other parties helped where they safely could do.