Accidents in North American Mountaineering

[Iceaxe]

Accident book teaches climbers a lesson
from The Chicago Tribune
By Pat Joseph | UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
March 9, 2008

"The next thing you know I was just flying down the mountain without my ice ax. That's when it gets bad. Total pandemonium. I was head over heels and I was smacking my face on rocks. Rocks were coming down with me and then this boulder rolled over me a couple times."

That harrowing account is from an incident reported in the 2007 edition of "Accidents in North American Mountaineering," an annual compendium of climbing mishaps published by the American Alpine Club.

Climber Ben Cort was scaling Longs Peak in Colorado on Aug. 19, 2006, when he lost his footing and went tumbling 800 feet down a snow chute known as Lamb's Slide. He suffered broken bones and lacerations but, amazingly, survived.

The accident is one of 109 reported in the United States and Mexico for 2006. Of the 227 climbers involved, 89 were injured and 21 were killed.

As grim as those statistics may seem, a quick scan of previous years shows that 2006 was safer than usual.

Mountaineering is a dangerous game. To survive, climbers must become proficient not only with the tools and techniques of their sport, but also in the much subtler art of calculating risks and making decisions based on those calculations. For that, "Accidents in North American Mountaineering" is an ideal textbook.

Mike Gauthier, a park ranger in charge of climbing and search and rescue operations on Washington's Mt. Rainier, uses the journal to educate people in workshops and seminars.

"People love the book," he says. "And I'm a big believer that, just by reading and hearing about other climbers' accidents, people become safer in the mountains."

Only a few thousand copies of the journal are printed each year, but the issue circulates more widely than that.

"It's one of those books that gets passed around a lot and used in courses," says Jed Williamson, who has edited the publication since 1974. "People will gather around a copy at the shop or the climbing gym. Somebody will say, 'Listen to this,' before reading aloud."

Even just skimming the book can be a wince-inducing experience. Page after page is filled with unflinching details of people falling or freezing, succumbing to the effects of altitude or simply disappearing without a trace.

The format of the book is straightforward: an accident narrative followed by a brief, nonjudgmental analysis of what went wrong. The neutral tone is important, says Williamson, because many climbers are reluctant to see their name in the book.

"Some people would rather climb out of the mountains bleeding than be rescued and risk having their name reported," he says. This is perhaps especially true of professional climbers with reputations to protect.

One of the more troubling accidents of 2006 resulted in the death of Todd Skinner, one of the country's most accomplished rock climbers. Skinner was rappelling from Leaning Tower, a sheer granite wall in California's Yosemite Valley, when the belay loop on his harness broke. He fell 500 feet to the talus slope at the base of the cliff.

Aware that his harness needed replacing, Skinner had a new one on order when the accident happened.

One of the lessons a close reading of "Accidents in North American Mountaineering" drives home is that expertise is no guarantor of safety. As the editors note in the analysis of Skinner's fall, "none of us is immune from making errors."

In fact, says Mike Gauthier, expert climbers may be more prone to accidents than careful novices.

"When you're good, you develop bad habits and shortcuts that speed your climbing but reduce your safety margins," he says. "You take bigger chances because you're good and you think, 'I'm not going to make that mistake.'"

For the non-climber, no doubt, the book will call to mind the age-old question: Why climb at all?

No one has ever offered a better answer to the question -- nor better counsel to climbers -- than Edward Whymper, who, in 1865, conquered the Matterhorn only to watch four compatriots fall to their deaths on the descent.

In his classic book "Scrambles Amongst the Alps," Whymper wrote: "There have been joys too great to be described in words, and there have been griefs upon which I have not dared to dwell; and with these in mind I say: Climb if you will, but remember that courage and strength are nought without prudence, and that a momentary negligence may destroy the happiness of a lifetime. Do nothing in haste; look well to each step; and from the beginning think what may be the end."

___________

The American Alpine Club can be found online at http://www.americanalpineclub.org . To order copies of "Accidents in North American Mountaineering" ($10), visit Mountaineers Books on the Web at http://www.mountaineersbooks.org .

http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel...,7039063.story

[Jaxx]

Sweet! Just ordered 99, 02, 03 from Amazon!

Edit: the books themselves were only $5, but $12 to ship.