I wonder what the BMC – who started this viral video spinning – think the lessons are? Don’t solo below people in winter? Don’t slide down gullies? Don’t try to bat chunks of ice away with your hand? Or as the general public will probably see it, climbers are reckless nutters?
I like to think I wouldn’t have been soloing in that situation and that I’d have hunkered down on my axes rather than flapping about, but it’s always easy to be wise from an armchair and people do odd, instinctive things in moments like that.
There’s an interview with the guy on the BMC web site – http://www.thebmc.co.uk/helmetcam-slide-snowdonia-accident-llanberis-mountain-rescue – there’s a bit where he says he doesn’t know what happened to his second axe after the initial, but there’s a frame where you can see it actually falls down the gully with him, but loose. He needs to watch his own footage bit more carefully…
It seems odd that the BMC article thing doesn’t make the fundamental point that soloing below other people in winter is a bad idea – I’ve been hit on the head by chunks of ice twice while roped – once on an Andean North Face, once on a Grade V in Scotland, both times knocked down by a team above and it’s a shock, but at least you’re tied on to something whereas if you’re soling, you obviously don’t have the same margin.
Anyway, glad the fella survived and hope he’s on the mend.