A miracle on the mountain
Britain’s luckiest climbers, they fell 1,300ft on Ben Nevis and LIVED. Today, in a gripping, blow-by-blow account, the mountaineering pals tell of their incredible deliverance, how they’ll now take on a peak five times as high... and what it’s REALLY like
THEY were only 15 minutes away from reaching their goal, with a short wall of perilous ice to scale after hours of climbing. A sense of elation hung in the air as the lead climber, roped to his friend 16 feet below, moved towards the fixing he had just hammered home, ready to ascend the final obstacle on one of the toughest routes to the summit of Britain’s highest mountain. But within seconds, disaster struck as the frozen surface suddenly broke away, causing both men to plunge down the notoriously savage north face of Ben Nevis.
First the pair fell 600ft in a near-vertical drop – with only a lucky landing on a thick covering of soft snow saving them from instant death.
Then – still tied together, clutching ice-axes and wearing crampons – they tumbled a further 700ft before finally coming to a halt.
Yet despite the 1,300ft drop, in one of the most miraculous escapes ever seen on the mountain, the two climbers survived.
And astonishingly, one was even able to get up and walk to seek help for his friend, who suffered a dislocated hip and broken bones in the accident.
Today, after their incredible brush with death, university friends Chris and Adam – who declined to give their second names – spoke for the first time about their ordeal, which came on the second day of a short break in the Lochaber area where they are regular ice climbers.
In an exclusive interview, Adam, who suffered ligament damage to his right ankle as well as minor fractures to his ribs, said: ‘It is nothing short of a miracle we’re both alive and don’t have any permanent injuries. People fall 20 metres in Snowdonia
As I took a step up, both my feet gave way and I was suddenly dangling in mid-air
and hit their head on a rock and die. We fell over 200 metres, then slid for another 200, and I walked off the mountain.
‘I still can’t fathom how that happened but I’m incredibly grateful.’
Chris, who fractured vertebrae and his hip socket and spent more than two weeks in hospital before being discharged six days ago, added: ‘It’s not lost on us how far we fell and the luck it took to come away in one piece.’
Their accident on March 12 came just four days after a similar fall in freezing conditions cost a 28-year-old climber, Samuel Crawford, from Northern Ireland, his life, and more than 20 other people – including a group of soldiers – had to be rescued on the 4,413ft peak.
For Chris and Adam, however, much milder conditions meant they would not face the same ferocious weather and, leaving the car park at 8am, they headed up the mountain to tackle Green Gully.
Gouged out of the expanse of granite on the mountain’s north face, its towering walls become increasingly narrow towards the top and are layered with hard-packed ice for several months of the year, proving an irresistible lure to climbers from all over the world.
The men hoped scaling it would be an opportunity to hone their skills ahead of tackling the US’s highest mountain, Denali, in Alaska. Formerly Mount McKinley, at 20,310ft it is almost five times the height of Ben Nevis.
Arriving in Coire na Ciste, at the foot of the gully, they found themselves behind a few other climbers.
Chris said: ‘It was a double-edged sword – validation we’d picked the right route but the queue in front of us meant it would take longer.’
Adam added: ‘The conditions were mild when we started the route at 10.45am. With no one else there, we could’ve climbed it in three hours. But around 12.30pm, we were still on the second pitch [section] out of four. I noticed conditions were changing and spindrift was starting, where snow that accumulates at the summit starts to blow off.’
By the time the pair reached the third pitch, progress had been so slow they discussed whether or not to abseil back down.
Adam said: ‘It would have been riskier than topping out, so we agreed to do the last pitch.’
Just after 4pm, with a ten-metre vertical wall left between them and the summit, Adam moved on to his next fixing.
He said: ‘As I took a step up, both my feet gave way and I was suddenly dangling in mid-air.’
At worst, Adam should have fallen no further than ten metres past Chris, who would have taken the strain along with their gear.
Chris added: ‘A whole ledge of snow collapsed beneath him. I was to the right below, so not directly underneath him, and I’m thinking, “OK, that’s fine, I’ll take a bit of a jolt on the rope as he drops and figure out how to get him safe”. Then the ice screw blew out above us and I was immediately ripped off the wall myself.’
With fixings popping out as Adam fell, there was nothing to prevent Chris’s freefall as he collided with and went past his companion.
Adam said: ‘After ten years of climbing and never having any serious incidents, it never occurred to me the whole anchor would also blow out and we would both fall down the entire route.
‘When I had that realisation, it’s all the clichés… time slows down and you have this horrible thought you’re probably going to die.’ Chris added: ‘I thought this could be it but I remember it being quite quiet and, I know it sounds bizarre, but I was concentrating on falling. I remember getting whacked by Adam. I was aware the gully itself was almost like falling down a slide.
‘Then we were very lucky because there was a long run-off at the bottom where the gradient started to flatten out. In terms of where you would want to fall 400 metres, it’s probably a good place to do it.
‘The softening snow led to the accident but it also protected us from more serious injury.’
When they both came to a halt in Coire na Ciste, Chris was lying head down on the slope, with Adam ten metres further up.
Adam said: ‘When I got to the shallower snow slope and I was still conscious, I realised we might make it.
‘Miraculously, I was able to stand up and walk. I saw Chris and he was clearly in pain with his hip and leg.
You have this horrible thought you’re probably going to die
We knew the only way off was mountain rescue.’
Before setting out, the pair left details of their route and estimated return time with family, in the event of something going wrong.
But with both their phones smashed in the fall, and their checkin time and – crucially – sunset just two hours away, Adam knew he had no option but to start walking to get help. It was as he made his way to the landmark of the Charles Inglis Clark memorial hut, a refuge halfway up the mountain, that he met two climbers and borrowed their phone to call mountain rescue.
All three returned to where Chris lay, ensuring he was kept warm until the Inverness-based coastguard search and rescue helicopter arrived with 15 members of Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team (LMRT).
Adam said: ‘It was getting dark but our head torches helped the helicopter locate us. Throughout, Chris was in considerable pain but incredibly stoic. I was really proud of the way he handled it.’ As the aircraft took off, Adam chose to walk back down the mountain himself – he now believes adrenaline masked the pain from his own injuries – before driving for three hours to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, in
Glasgow, where Chris was taken. Both climbers are full of praise for their rescuers, particularly the LMRT, who face more than 100 callouts annually.
Now wearing a neck brace following surgery to fuse two vertebrae, Chris said: ‘The professionalism and expertise they demonstrate makes you feel safe. My care in hospital was also exceptional.’ The friends now want to fundraise for LMRT, which recently launched a JustGiving page to appeal for donations. Yesterday, on hearing news Chris had finally left hospital, a spokesman said: ‘We are happy to hear his recovery has begun and hope to see him back climbing soon.’
It is an invitation neither Chris nor Adam can resist. Last night Adam said: ‘This has made our friendship even stronger and we’ve no intention of giving up now.
‘We got unlucky but there are always risks in life. Me and Chris had big plans to climb Denali and I hope, when we are fully recovered, we can put this all behind us and be able to get back onto the mountains together and achieve our goal.’
A smiling Chris added: ‘I’ve always wanted to explore and challenge myself. I think it’s an amazing sport for doing that, and very little compares to the feelings you get when you summit. I would rather live trying that kind of activity than shying away from it.’
Donations to Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team can be made at https:// justgiving.com/lmrt
We got unlucky but there are always risks in life