Learning the Ropes in Chamonix. Crevasse Rescue

One day of our course was almost entirely devoted to crevasse rescue on glaciers. Since glaciers are a defining element of high alpine environments knowing how to react in the event of a crevasse accident is a crucial step in every mountaineer’s career.

Chamonix is an ideal location for learning crevasse rescue techniques. Due to the high elevation of the mountains and their glaciers it’s easily possible to find suited test environments. You need a wet glacier as training ground. A wet glacier is still covered by snow as opposed to a ‘dry’ glacier where there is no snow cover and the ice is blank thus disclosing all the crevasses.

For our training we went to Argentière (1220m), the famous village at the foot of the Aiguille Verte (4122m). For us lazy students the cable car up to the Grands Montets (3295m) was a welcomed means to reach the glacieted terrain without any hassle.

From the top station we went down to the Glacier des Rognons in the huge basin formed by the Glacier d’Argentière surrounded by a spectacular scenery of mountains. Soon we arrived at a location which seemed suitable for our task.

Crevasse rescue is relatively straightforward once you have gone through the necessary steps for several times. At least this holds true for a training attempt. In the case of a real accident there are probably circumstances which make the process much more difficult.

Obviously the first step is to stop the fall of your partner successfully. If your team consists of three or four members this should not be that much of a problem (as long as the ground is not too steep, of course). Usually, the slushy snow creates enough friction for stopping the fall. The next step involves creating an anchor with your ice-axe. Then it is necessary to transfer the load (i.e. the weight of your fallen partner) to the anchor. Thus the rescuer is freed from the load allowing him to undertake the next rescue steps.

The usual method teached for hauling up the partner is the dropped loop. With this method the partner is pulled out on a loop of rope equipped with a locking carabiner which is dropped to him or her by the rescuers.

The victim then locks into the carabiner and the rescuers are ready to start pulling. To ease the process (otherwise you risk that your parnter slips down again if your strength dwindles) it is necessary to back stop the hauling rope with a prusik (or special devices such as a tribloc).

After training this technique for the whole day we felt prepared for navigating safely the amazing world of glaciers. Thus, we discussed our options for climbing up a ‘real’ big mountain in the spectacular Mont Blanc range.

However, our guide promptly lessened our ambitious plans. According to him we were still not ready to stay on our own until we finally learned to navigate on blank ice using basic crampon and ice-ax techniques.