A long day in the hills

On Sunday after only a couple of hours sleep, Dave and I got up at 5am, collected Joe French, a local climber and filmmaker and drove up to Ben Nevis to begin the long walk in. The objective of the day was for Dave to free a route on the Ben called ‘Don’t Die of Ignorance’. Dave had fallen off the crux pitch five times previously and hopes were high for today. I’ve never actually watched a winter climb before, or even been in the hills in winter conditions so it was rather a full on day for me and I’ve been suffering for it a bit over the past couple of days. My job was to film long shots from the corrie floor whilst Joe’s partner in Heather Hat, John Sutherland, was filming from the top of the Garadh to the side.

Dave and Joe about to set off - Joe blissfully unaware of what was ahead.

Photo: John Sutherland

Dave took about 2 ½ hours to lead the crux pitch and so far as I cold tell from the distance I was at, everything looked like it had seemed to go ok. When Joe began seconding though, that was a different matter. He came off on a traverse with an awesome scream followed by some choice language. I was too far away to see exactly what was going on (my eyesight isn’t the hottest at long distances since having laser) – turns out his axe stayed in place whilst he popped off and all his weight was hanging from his wrist, caught in the loop and the rest off him was dangling in space. He managed to free himself (that was the choice language part) and he sat slumped on the rope not answering any of Dave’s’ repeated shouts down. I didn’t know this at the time though and was in two minds out about what to do at his point. Joe had either knocked himself out and was hanging injured (the right way up, thankfully) or he was in shock. Either way, there was nothing I could do so I must admit I considered bailing rather than watching. I’ve always said that I find winter the most worrying time of the year because of fear of the unknown but after watching that I think I would probably prefer waiting until they were down to find out they were alright – ignorance is bliss, after all.

John came over and spoke to Joe and calmed him down and talked him through what to do to get himself out of the situation. Ordinarily, Joe would know fine well but I think he was in a bit of shock and luckily uninjured, it is pretty exposed up there and I certainly don’t envy him.

Dave and Joe on the impressive face of the Comb

Even though it was quite a nice day, I thought it was super cold, especially sitting in roughly the same place for 7 hours. Not as cold as Dave though, who phoned me when Joe got to the belay after the crux pitch. He told me he was a little bit cold but I didn’t believe a word of it. I was able to move around and was wrapped up in probably the biggest down jacket you can get as well as down trousers. Dave had slimmed down his rack considerably as he felt the weight of it was a factor in his previous failures on the route and I knew he wasn’t wearing much either as he didn’t want his movement restricted. He had been at the belay for 2 ½ hours by now, holding and hauling Joe and he was slurring his words when he called me. Joe told me later that Dave was curled in the foetal position when he got to him, shivering uncontrollably (thankfully) and his lips were actually blue. You’ve got to give it to Dave for telling me he was a little bit cold so he wouldn’t worry me. He was probably sub-hypothermic.

I sat watching and filming until 5pm when I had to go down before it got dark. Dave and Joe weren’t so fortunate about when they could decide to up-sticks and leave – they topped out in the bright moonlight about 9pm and they got back to me at the car at 10.30pm after bringing the hardest winter route in Britain back to Ben Nevis with Don’t Die of Ignorance XI, 11.