Profound Protection

The first day, which we spent on a small waterfall, I discovered that the ice was so rotten that few, if any, of my ice screws would hold a fall, but I managed to rappel (descend) to safety.

The next day, because the ice was so bad below, we decided to climb beside the waterfall to a higher area. The ice up top was also in poor condition, so we climbed to the side of the waterfall. At the end of the day, we prepared to rappel down to the bottom.

I gave quite a few lectures to my climbing partner on the importance of safe rappelling, including to always tie a knot in the ends of the rope, and I reminded him that most climbing fatalities are from rappelling. By the time we got to the last rappel station, it was dark, so we turned on our headlamps and began to set up the descent. We had two ropes that we had been tying together to get more distance, but on the last part, I thought that the single 70m rope would be fine. Looking down, I could see the rope coiled at the bottom of the climb, so I assumed all was well. Just at that moment, I thought, "Oops, I forgot to tie knots in the ends." I thought about the coils at the bottom and said, "Let's hope for the best." Then we began the descent.

I can say now that inwardly I knew that something was very wrong, but I foolishly ignored it. The thought of the rope ends repeatedly entered my mind, but I kept dismissing it. About three-quarters of the way down, I came off the ropes and fell. I had seen imaginary coils and was clearly wrong about the distance. The front points of my crampons caught on an ice shelf and turned me upside down, as I fell over 10m (30 feet). I hit the ground with my upper back and shoulders, feet in the air and my chin tucked to my chest. The momentum carried me backwards in a roll, and I felt my knees hit me in the face.

As I rolled, I knew from the distance and force of impact that I would be seriously injured, and I began to assess what would likely be broken. I figured that I would have a spinal injury, a broken rib or two and potentially some internal injuries. I rolled twice and stopped, standing on my feet. I did not have a single scratch or bruise, not even a bloody nose from my knees hitting me in the face. This was a real miracle.

My series of mistakes was potentially lethal, but I am alive to tell the tale of my embarrassingly poor judgement and of my Guru's profound protection.

Nirabadhi - Vancouver.