Impaled By An Ice Axe

 Impaled by an ice axe, this month’s episode of The Sharp End is a wee bit gruesome, but the man with an ice axe through his chest survived. I remember years and years ago in Canada, a climber fell off an ice climb and impaled himself with one of his tools, so these freak accidents happen very occasionally.

The Emmons Winthrop route on Mount Rainier is the easiest route on the mountain and most commonly done by guided groups or the inexperienced. Judging by the somewhat strange and confusing terminology used by the protagonist in the episode, I would assume that the party of two – both of whom sustained very serious injuries – were the latter.

The accident was the classic “fall on snow, failure to self-arrest, roped but not belayed” scenario that plays out across the mountains, particularly crowded mountains like Rainier, every year. Sometimes, I think that less experienced climbers fail to understand that there are no fall zones on routes, where you must be absolutely 100% sure you will not fall if you are going to traverse that zone. And, it’s not simply that YOU must not fall, if you have tied onto a rope with a partner or two, NO-ONE on the rope team can fall. Arresting falls on snow, particularly hard and/or steep snow, once one person on the rope has slipped and begun to accelerate is largely impossible. If there is any doubt about a fall taking place, protection must be placed, even if it is running protection and not fixed belays.

As usual, the most interesting part of the podcast is the take away lesson(s), and, as is common, I raise a proverbial eyebrow at the lessons the protagonist garnered from a near death experience with an ice axe. Number one on the list was using a proper climbing carabiner to attach your InReach (a popular push button emergency device) to your climbing pack. Silly me, I thought NOT FALLING would be lesson number 1, and 2, and 3, and etc. Seriously, DO NOT FALL.

The other classic about this particular accident is that “everything was fine until it wasn’t.” For the beginner climber, this is a bit like the old quote about good judgement: “Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgement.” Humans are masters at recognising patterns but pattern recognition only comes from hundreds of different experiences and without those hundreds of experiences, the moment when the trip crosses the line from being fine to teetering on the edge of disaster passes unnoticed.

I suspect this party was actually on the edge of disaster long before the fall took place as the protagonist describes looking for a place to stop to eat and drink, implying that neither climber was comfortable enough on the terrain to stand still, take a pack off, eat and drink. If this was the case, the best solution would have been the most difficult, descend, go away, get more experience and come back later. This is what David Jones, an old acquaintance of mine (and guide book author) from Canada, advises when parties start up routes like the NW ridge of Sir Donald and require belays right out of the col. In our modern age however, a suggestion as prosaic as “come back when you are better,” would be considered an outrage. After all, everybody is supposedly equal.

There are however, a few strategies the lead climber could have used to safe-guard the moment when the two climbers stopped and the instant when the fall happened. First is chopping out a platform to stand on. After all, both climbers were carrying ice axes. The second is making a quick belay from an ice axe or picket (the protagonist had a picket in his back pack – not that a picket in a backpack is much use). The third is stamping a solid platform while holding the ice axe in self belay position such that if the protagonist had fallen, he would have been caught immediately by the axe. Anyone of these things would likely have prevented the entire incident.