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Self-rescue.—Chances are the victim will still have his ice ax; the wrist loop he presumably was wearing will have saved it. If conditions are right he may be able to climb out utilizing the configurations of the crevasse to his advantage. If they are not right, he may be able to use the Prusik method of ascending the rope, if he has taken the precaution of attaching the slings before taking his fall. Three 6-foot slings are needed: two for the feet and one for the chest, all three being tied onto the anchor rope with the Prusik knot. The knots will hold when weighted, slide when unweighted. The weight is placed onto the feet as quickly as possible to relieve constriction of the chest. The three loops are consecutively unweighted and with great effort slid by hand up the wet rope as the climber ascends. Difficulty will be encountered in getting up over the lip where the rope bites deep into the snow. A single rope of two, however, will not usually be able to extricate itself if one of the team is down. |
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