It typically takes two or more faults for things to go really wrong. Spacecraft are normally designed to be fault tolerant. If one system fails, a spacecraft will switch from the faulty equipment to a redundant (backup) equipment and continue to operate and even fulfil its mission. Sometimes, high reliability spacecraft such as human rated craft could endure two faults and still bring the humans safely home or back to a space station. Even with the 1996 Everest disaster, it wasn’t only the storm that led to the deaths of 12 climbers. Late arrival at the summit due to missing ropes, miscommunication about stored oxygen bottles, and a bad weather forecast or interpretation all contributed to the disaster.
I witnessed first hand how a few simple things can go wrong and you end up alone on a freezing mountain at altitude. It did not end up in a disaster (we were rescued) but it was a nice reminder how easily things could go wrong. It all happened in 1999 when a buddy of mine and I were enjoying a snowboard holiday at Les Deux Alpes in France.
We found out that there was the possibility to descent on the other side of the mountain, called ‘La Grave’. This was an unprepared and non-surveillance descent where it is your own responsibility to avoid the glacier’s crevasses. Being two ‘snowboard dudes’, this sounded very cool so we bought the ticket to descent from the top. The guard on top signalled someone at the bottom that two persons were descending, and down we went on one of the most epic slopes we boarded.
After a long run down, we sat down for a drink and forgot that it was getting close to closing hours. We quickly took the first chairlift up to the middle of the slope. The second lift was a T-bar lift however the operator refused to let us on, as it was almost four o’clock. We tried to explain him the situation that we need to get to the top in order to descent on the other side of the mountain. But only to get a ‘Tant pis! Adieu’ in return as he descended. As this happened, someone on a snowscooter arrived (to do a final check of the slope I guessed) and asked us what was the matter. When we explained it, he kindly offered us to take us both up on the snowscooter however due to the steepness of the slope he could not guarantee that we would actually make it. With my buddy on the back of the scooter, and me trailing behind with a rope fixed to the scooter, we set off. He wasn’t joking about the steepness. The slope got steeper and steeper, and the snowscooter went slower and slower, until about 200 m below the summit it came to a halt. From here on, we were on our own.
How hard can it be? It’s only a few hundred meter up. We would walk up, and board down the other side. We severely underestimated the time it takes to move up at that altitude (3500 m) also because the slopes on the other side are all lower so we weren’t acclimatised for this altitude range. What we thought would be a 15 min walk up, ended up in a steep climb of well over an hour. As we got to the summit, the Sun had gone down, to be replaced by fog and cold. In fact, the fog was so dense that soon we lost our orientation on the wide summit and literally had no idea in which direction to go. All we could see was fog. The cold started to get to me so we decided to shelter in a small cabin we found on top of the ski lift. We both started to get worried. A wrong decision could make us descent on the glacier instead of prepared ski slopes, with risks of falling in crevasses. We decided to scout by walking in the direction that we both thought would be the right one, with about 10 meters of sight.
Suddenly we heard a machine. To our left, we could see a large silhouette appearing. It was a piste basher which just happened to reach the top of the ski slope when we were there. We waived for help and soon he let us in, and offered to take us down to the next station on the side we intended to go. While going down he signalled to some others that two &**#$&#$s were coming down with him. When we arrived at the next slope we were welcomed by a less-than-friendly looking man on skis who instructed us to follow him down. He assumed that we knew how to board, since the descent speed he used was record braking. We thanked him and tails between our legs walked back to our apartment.
Clearly several things had gone wrong here, not in the least our ignorance with respect to the time, and overly optimistic ascent time. It all ended well (mostly due to the being lucky!), but was a good reminder to be better prepared in case something goes wrong. Now, 21 years later, I re-joined the exact same track, and now climbed it from bottom to top. Still not acclimatised, but fully prepared in terms of plan and gear, and with knowledge of the weather. That was a great day, and my way of making up to the mountain. See that story here.
Ciao!
Robin
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