Amazing video

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/video/2013/mar/11/snowdon-climber-falling-ice-video

very lucky to be alive

same day a young lad fell off swirral edge (and survived)

looks a hell of a lot more than 30 metres. Bolt could run that in 3 seconds. Looks more like 150ft to me, and very lucky

Yup lucky to get away with that. Broken ankles apparently, helicoptered off.

Though he might have been better planting his tools properly and ducking into the slope, instead of flapping his arms at it and falling over 😕

Yes, he barn-doored off the ice – quite a beginners mistake!

Axe tickle the ice 😯 when I’ve done this we were taught smack that thing in hard and use the hand loops. If u see stuff falling get in as close to the slope as you can tucking your head in, don’t lean back and watch said chunk of ice coming towards you.
Lucky lucky bloke.

barn doored?

When you lose a point of contact unexpectedly and swing out sideways… like a barn door opening.

There is no mountain in Wales called mount snowdon. It is either snowdon or yr wyddfa.

Looks brilliant fun. Apart from the broken ankles bit, obviously.

Certainly appears to be shocking climbing technique. He takes his hand off the axe doesn’t he to fend off the chunk of ice? Which is daft, what’re you gonna do to a 100mph rock whizzing by? And I’m not sure I’d be moving without ropes in what appears to be soft snow.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/mountain-slide

There is no mountain in Wales called mount snowdon. It is either snowdon or yr wyddfa.

Plus the Gully actually tops out on a different mountain 🙂

if I was him, id be buying a lottery ticket for the next draw. Lucky sod

It was more of a slide than a fall. It didn’t look like he lost contact with the ground so no falling happened.

plecostomus – Member
It is either snowdon or yr wyddfa.

Are you drunk or have you just had a stroke? 😕

barn doored?

He takes his hand off the axe doesn’t he to fend off the chunk of ice?

No, it’s already off. He does try to push it away too and moves to the right where it seems to all go wrong.

No one ever heard the phrase barn-doored?

If you loose a point of contact on one side unexpectedly, you swing out to the other side quite quickly like a barn door swinging open. At this point the crampon points lever off their ledges and you’ll be lucky to hold it with just one hand / axe – normally you fall off at this point. The video demonstrates the miss-technique perfectly.

And I’m not sure I’d be moving without ropes in what appears to be soft snow

Grade II like that, it’s normal to Solo in winter – keeps you moving faster and ensures that one person falling isn’t two people falling – I think the only time I’ve ever put in enough protection to stop me proper in winter is on climbs of Grade III and above – certainly almost never on I/II.

Looking at the ice around, it the conditions don’t look too bad (for Wales) and he should have had a good enough platform to fend off the lump of ice coming down, even if he didn’t if he had pulled into the slope, as opposed to leaning out, his axes would have been digging in already to slow him, rather than flailing about…

Quite a bit of rather uninformed comment on this vid, some on this thread and much more elsewhere.

As far as I can see the guy only made one mistake and that was standing in the firing line. Once that lump hit him it was all out of his control.

As far as I can see the guy only made one mistake and that was standing in the firing line.

Climbing any gulley you expect to have stuff fall down on you – esp in the Northern Corries at a WE when they’ll be about 10 people above you.

How you react to it is what matters – you should pull yourself in to be as flush as possible and let the stuff skim over you or bounce off your helmet (mine has some huge gouges in it from rock fall). He demonstrated perfectly what not to do and why….

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.

XXXL shovel sledging… Orsum!

Trouble is, if you climb Parsley Fern at a weekend there’s very little chance of not having someone above you is there? It’s the risk you take when winter climbing especially in easy gullies.

How you react to it is what matters

Did you see the size of the lump? A different reaction might have stopped him falling but then again it might not. A direct hit from a block that size could have caused serious head or neck injuries even with a helmet or dislodged him regardless of reaction. I prefer to reserve judgement on these things where there is an element of doubt as here.

Footflaps – with you on barn door. Fallen to it many a time trying to layback aretes. Need pilates hardened abs……

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.

This.

Anyone who thinks it wouldn’t happen to them or that they definately would have acted differently has a poor understanding of human behaviour.

now I am not great with units and measures, but that is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more than 30m.

Ouch! Strange how his first instinct was to turn off the helmet cam?

Yeah, he was very lucky – very lucky to actually get an interesting video!

Good advert for go pro (I’m guessing that was his helmet cam of choice), yet another ‘survive anything’ moment for them.

Why did he not have at least one axe leashed? I also assume he dug the crampons in judging by the 100% rotation of the camera at one point. I have taught folk to axe arrest,and done it for real,it’s horrible.

Why did he not have at least one axe leashed?

He did, his left hand was in the leash and it was done up – he just lost it on the way down – not done up enough I suppose.

Accident, he made a marginal mistake in a split second. I feel sorry for the guy with the heaps of internet expertise heaped on him from all quarters. I guess we can ‘learn’ but some of the commentary I’ve seen is off. So he might not be that experienced, but where else are you going to learn than on an easyish route? Like the two guys I saw on top of Crib Y Ddysgl last week who’d just done it. Wild eyed with enthusiasm for one of their first winter routes.

Should he expect to arrest a fall like that with his axe?

I’ve only been winter hill walking in Scotland, never climbing per se, and always wondered how likely it would be to whip out an ice-axe arrest in a split second. Practiced it ok on a course, but I reckon the real thing would end up looking like that guy in the vid.

If it ever happens to me I shall swear like a trooper the whoel way down and thus avoid excessive mainstream media exposure.

I have done it once for real,it works,but you are usually climbing with your axe in your hand anyway. I can’t see him try in the vid and he corkscrews at one point like he has dug his crampons in.

Should he expect to arrest a fall like that with his axe?

No. Ice axe arrest is pretty much impossible on steep icy terrain.

I sometimes wonder how many people recognise the limitations of ice axe arrest.

Maybe it’s just me, but that doesnt look all that steep. I’m just wondering why there is no attempt whatsoever to try and arrest his slide. I’ve arrested slides on steeper ground. But then again I practice my ice axe arrests on steep ground a hell of a lot.