‘What does it look like?’ Ray said with excited impatience.
‘It’s no distance away at all,’ I said, grinning. ‘If this stone-fall eases up we could run the ropes up to the Ice Hose this evening and then climb them quickly in the morning. We’d be there in less than an hour.’
‘Really? That’s brilliant. What about the Ice Hose?’
‘Not good,’ I shrugged. ‘Hey, I’m getting excited about this, youth. I’ve got a gut feeling about this one. I think it will go.’
‘But what about those other guys?’
‘I don’t know,’ I said gravely. ‘They must be climbing. I kept seeing chunks of ice tumbling down, the sort of stuff that comes down when you’re digging out stances, clearing ice to place screws, that sort of thing.’
‘Going up?’ Ray said incredulously.
‘I know, that’s what I was thinking,’ I said, settling into a sitting position on the mats. ‘It doesn’t make sense.’
Ray shook his head and stared at the rocks bounding down the First Ice Field.
‘What I don’t understand is that they’re climbing themselves into a trap,’ I said. ‘Think about it. If they’re on the Second Ice Field now the chances of being hit are horrendous.’
‘You know, our cock-up with the sack-hauling might have been a blessing in disguise,’ Ray pointed out.
‘How do you mean?’
‘If we hadn’t wasted all that time we might be up there with them by now.’
‘No bloody way. We’re too cowardly for that,’ I said. ‘It’s only a couple of abseils back down to here. We would have been running for shelter the minute we saw that thing overdeveloping.’
‘Yeah, you’re right.’
‘Even if they get to the top of the ice field in one piece what are they planning on doing?’ I asked and Ray shook his head. ‘They’ll get some shelter from the rock wall at the upper rim but then they’ll have to traverse right across towards the Flat Iron and up that to Death Bivouac.’
‘The crap coming down the Spider would be lethal,’ Ray added.
‘Jesus, I hope they’re not hurt,’ I said and stared into Ray’s eyes. ‘We’re nearest to them. We’d have to go and help them …’ I left the question unspoken, feeling a little scared.
‘Would you go up?’ Ray asked quietly. I stared at the First Ice Field as more stones zipped past, then I looked back at Ray. He seemed troubled. I thought of Simon and Mal, who had put so much on the line to save my life on Siula Grande and Pachermo.
‘We’d have no choice,’ I said sombrely. ‘We’d have to make an attempt at least. I’d have to go.’
Ray looked away. ‘I’d go with you, kid,’ he said and we were silent. The sudden excitement of seeing the way ahead and knowing we were in a good position to climb the wall had dissipated.
‘Shit!’ I swore again and looked at Ray. Already I was mulling over the practicalities of a possible rescue that in my heart of hearts I was crying out not to have to attempt.
‘I’ve got my emergency first aid kit,’ I said. ‘It’s not much.’
‘We’ve got to reach them first.’
‘If they need help it will depend on where they are,’ I said, trying to work out a plan.’
‘What are you thinking?’
‘Well, first we’ll have to climb the Ice Hose – if we can. Then we’ll see what it’s like. No point killing ourselves.’
‘Agreed.’
‘We’d have to lower whoever is injured down the Ice Hose, then we could double our ropes and do a single lower to here.’
‘What if they’re both injured? What if …’
‘I dunno,’ I muttered and shook my head irritably. ‘We’ll have to decide when we get there but we’ll have to get them off the ice field. They’ll be too exposed otherwise. It might be better to fix lines from where they are and get them up to the shelter of the rim, wait for a rescue helicopter there. Dig a big stance in the ice. I …’ I trailed off as I caught Ray’s expression.
‘We’ll go if we have to,’ Ray said quietly.
‘How will we know?’
‘We could phone Simon,’ he suggested and I stared at him in astonishment.
‘Phone Simon? What the hell are you talking about?’
‘You’ve got your mobile with you,’ Ray pointed out and laughed at my expression.
‘Good God, I’d forgotten about that,’ I said and felt the tiny phone in my chest pocket.
‘Good things, modern gadgets, eh?’
I stood up and moved to the far left edge of the ledge, peering down the line of the Hinterstoisser. A familiar sound came whirring up from the valley. Helicopter! I glanced at Ray in surprise and he got to his feet and moved over to my side.
‘Where is it?’ he said, as we scanned the sky. The whop-whop-whop sound of the rotors was creating confusing echoes that bounced off the surrounding walls. The din rapidly grew in volume, thudding back off the walls in disconcerting reverberations.
‘Down there!’ I shouted, pointing straight below us. ‘Coming up the Shattered Pillar. It’s heading towards us.’
We watched as a red helicopter with a white cross on its door rose in a steady series of climbing circles. We could look straight down into the spinning disc of the rotors flashing with a strobe light effect. A man was hanging far out from the doors, searching the face.
‘It looks like Hanspeter,’ I said.
With a great roaring noise the helicopter rose up until it was hovering directly opposite us, only a hundred feet away. Ray and I held up our thumbs to indicate that we were safe and Hanspeter waved back in acknowledgement. The helicopter suddenly peeled away in a great spiralling arc out over the meadows, losing height rapidly.
‘Well, that was nice of them,’ I said. ‘They must have been worried about us and just came over to check us out.’
‘I’m not sure about that,’ Ray said, as he tracked the path of the helicopter. ‘Look, it’s coming back. Why would it do that if it knows we’re safe?’
I watched as the aircraft hovered down near the screes at the foot of the face, making steady beats sideways across the face, gradually gaining height.
‘What are they doing?’ Ray asked.
‘Searching,’ I replied. ‘They’re looking for something – or someone,’ I added.
‘The soloist?’
‘Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.’ The helicopter had flown level with the top of the First Pillar, some 2000 feet below us.
‘Hang on,’ I said. ‘It’s landing. They’ve seen something.’
‘Landing? On what?’
‘The First Pillar,’ I said, staring through the viewfinder. ‘They’ve put down a skid on the top. Two guys have just jumped out.’
The helicopter immediately rose up and curved away to hover above the safety of the meadows. I watched as two figures wearing red guides’ jackets ran from the top of the pillar in towards the face. They appeared to be crouching as they moved rapidly to the left of the pillar and then slowed down. One man knelt down, gently examining something lying on the rubble-strewn ledge. I watched as he spoke into a radio. Then both men rose and ran back to the top of the Pillar. The helicopter immediately swung in towards the face in a smooth curve to place one skid delicately on the rocks and the two men jumped aboard. It rose quickly, climbing steadily in the sky above the meadows before turning and flying directly towards Kleine Scheidegg. I felt a cold cramping sensation in my stomach.
‘Someone must have fallen,’ I said. ‘They’ve found a body down there.’
‘Are you sure?’ Ray asked. ‘Why didn’t they put it in the helicopter then?’
‘Too dangerous,’ I replied and watched rocks rolling down the ice field and launch into space to fall directly in line with the First Pillar. ‘I think they took a big risk just doing what they did.’
‘Are you sure it’s a body?’ Ray persisted. ‘It might just have been a rucksack, some debris. There’s plenty around.’
‘They knew exactl
y where to look. They’d seen something fall. I’ll bet it was the solo climber.’ I glanced up at the top of the First Ice Field and caught Ray’s questioning expression.
‘I know,’ I said. ‘Just what I was thinking. How could anyone have fallen without us noticing? Maybe you’re right and I’m just being paranoid.’
‘Ring Simon Wells,’ Ray urged. ‘If that was Hanspeter then he’ll have been talking to Simon.’
I fiddled with my mobile. My fingers felt shaky. I heard the number being dialled and then there was a click.
‘Hello?’
‘Simon?’ I said, recognising his voice with relief. ‘It’s Joe.’
‘Joe! God, Joe, you’re alive! Thank God for that. You’re alive,’ he said, in a rushed, relieved tone.
‘Well, yes,’ I said realising with dread that it meant someone else wasn’t. ‘We’re fine. We’re safe.’
‘I kept ringing your mobile and getting this stupid recorded message. I was sure it meant you were dead.’
‘I’d just turned it off to save the batteries,’ I said. ‘What’s happened, Simon? What did the helicopter find?’
‘Hang on, Joe.’ There was silence and then I heard Simon talking into a radio. ‘Are you there, Joe?’
‘Yeah, still here,’ I said. ‘What’s going on?’
‘They’ve found the others.’
‘Others? More than one?’
‘Yes. Look, you know those two lads who were climbing above you?’
My stomach tightened. I glanced at Ray, who was watching my conversation intently. ‘What of them?’
‘They’re dead, Joe.’ Simon paused. ‘Hanspeter was looking through his binoculars and he saw the lead climber fall from the top rim of the ice field. We thought it was you. We’d been monitoring you all day.’
‘What do you mean, he fell?’ I said, somewhat exasperated. ‘Maybe it was a rucksack?’ I added, hopefully.
‘No,’ Simon said insistently. ‘It was them. We had the camera running. We rewound the film. They both fell. The leader hadn’t put any gear in on the ice field. They were moving together. The second was pulled off. They’re gone.’
‘Have they found them?’
‘Yes. Down by the First Pillar. There’s too much rock-fall to get them off …’
‘Hang on, Simon,’ I interrupted him and moved to the edge of the ledge. I looked down at where the bodies had been found and back up the ice field above me. ‘We never saw anything. Never heard a thing.’ I thought of that strange, heavy, slumping sound.
‘They went straight over the top of you,’ Simon said bluntly. ‘We saw the fall.’
‘Oh, God, no. Look, I’ll ring you back,’ I said and closed the phone. I turned to Ray, who was looking quizzically at me. ‘Those lads are dead.’ He swore and turned away, rubbing his face with his hands. I explained what Simon had seen and for a long moment we stood silently on the ledge staring at the huge drop beneath us. Ray moved to one side and crouched down, resting his head in his hands. I stared out at the storm destroying itself on the rock buttresses of the Wetterhorn. It was strangely beautiful. I felt dazed and wondered whether I was simply trying to see what was good and ignore what I had learned from Simon. I felt detached and thought of the lads falling and what it must have been like. I thought selfishly of myself and felt ashamed. We wouldn’t have to attempt a rescue now. I watched as the light and colours danced in the dying storm clouds. For a long silent moment I was lost, trying desperately to understand what had happened. I lowered myself to the mat and put my head in my hands. I wanted to cry for them but I didn’t know how.
Stones clacked by, shaking me from my thoughts and I looked wordlessly at Ray. I could see in his eyes what he was thinking. It could have been us.
‘I didn’t see anything,’ he said helplessly. ‘Didn’t hear anything.’ He looked up at the boundary wall above the Hinterstoisser and we did not need to answer his question. They had cleared the First Ice Field in one sickening free fall out into the chasm 3000 feet below.
I felt weak at the thought.
‘What do we do now?’ I said and Ray swore in frustration. ‘Do we carry on?’
‘I don’t know,’ Ray said. ‘What do you think?’
‘Nothing’s changed,’ I said callously. ‘I mean, the weather forecast, our plans. If it’s fine tomorrow we can carry on.’
‘I suppose you’re right,’ Ray said hesitantly and I shared the feeling that we might be doing something wrong. The joy had been instantly extinguished from the climb. My phone rang shrilly in my pocket.
‘Hi, Joe. It’s Simon. Look, I don’t know what your plans are but I should tell you that Hanspeter has said that the forecast has changed. There’s bad weather moving in tomorrow – I don’t know how bad. Then it should improve over the following two days. I just thought you might need to know.’
‘Yes. Thanks.’ I glanced at my watch. It read a quarter to six. Dark in three hours, maybe less. ‘By the way Simon, when did the lads fall?’
‘Oh, about forty-five minutes ago. About five o’clock.’
‘Right,’ I said, thinking of the strange sound when I had looked up at the Ice Hose. ‘I see.’
‘What are you going to do?’
‘Ray?’ I called. ‘Bad weather tomorrow. Do we sit it out and go up or go down now to the Stollenloch?’ Ray held my gaze for a moment and then nodded his head downwards. I smiled in agreement.
‘Simon,’ I spoke into the phone. ‘We’re coming down. We’ll head for the Stollenloch but we have to get ourselves sorted out first. There’s a lot of rock-fall so we’ll be slow.’
‘OK, I’ll get Hanspeter to ask the railway people to leave the doors open at the entrance to the tunnel. We’ll be in the hotel. We’ll wait up for you. Be careful.’
‘Will do and thanks.’ I closed the phone. ‘Let’s get the hell out of here,’ I said, even as I watched Ray rolling up his sleeping mat.
At half past six I grasped the fixed rope leading down the vertical crack towards the Hinterstoisser Traverse and swung myself off the ledge.
‘Be careful, kid,’ Ray said. ‘And clip everything you can.’
I lowered myself swiftly hand over hand down the weathered rope, glad of the chance to be doing something instead of brooding on what had happened. When I reached the edge of the traverse I saw that it was streaming with water. A few rocks hissed by and flew harmlessly into space off the ice field above, rattling down the wall below. Reversing the traverse was awkward. I clipped my ropes behind me through the line of old pegs to safeguard Ray and skittered across the slippery, wet rock.
When I reached the belay at the far end I had to raise the hood of my jacket. Water was flooding off the top of the wall, coursing down my sleeves and soaking my arms as I held the fixed ropes. I yelled up at Ray to come down and felt the ropes moving.
The sun was low on the horizon, bathing the face in warm light. I glanced down at the First Pillar, now swathed in frigid shadows, and tried not to dwell on what lay there. Ray and I had a job to do as safely and as efficiently as possible. That was all there was to consider.
I watched as Ray swung across the wall with water spattering across his shoulders and rucksack. The sunshine glittered on the silver streams. I glanced at the horizon and knew that we would not get to the Stollenloch before darkness fell. I dropped my rucksack to the ground and found my head torch. As I was fastening it to my helmet Ray swung down to the stance. I looked at the ground we had to cover to reach the top of the Difficult Crack. I remembered that protection was sparse on the way up and we had clipped only a couple of pitons on each rope length. Down-climbing the traverse was our fastest descent option but it would be awkward and if either of us slipped the consequences were all too obvious.
‘What do you reckon? Down-climb or abseil?’ I said.
‘Abseil,’ Ray replied confidently.
‘It’s all sideways. It might be a bitch getting the ropes down.’
‘It will but we’re in no rush. Let’s
be super slow, super safe, eh?’
‘Fair enough.’
We threaded the ropes through the belay, coiled them and threw them out and sideways. They hit the first snow ledge and rolled into a bundle of tangled loops. I slid down the ropes and painstakingly freed the knotted coils and threw the ropes down separately. There was a high-pitched sound and I ducked as a handful of rocks peppered the slope to my right. Glancing up, I saw that we were moving out from the protection of the rock wall.
The light was fading fast by the time we gathered at the top of the gully leading down to the Difficult Crack. Ray pulled the ropes through as I threaded the next abseil point. Stones had been falling almost continuously since we had left the Hinterstoisser. I felt oddly detached. It didn’t concern me that I might be hit. There was nothing I could do about it so I simply ignored the impact sounds around me. As I stood watching Ray making his way cautiously down towards me, ducking as rocks hit close by, it occurred to me that we were doing exactly what we had read about in so many books. It was a strangely surreal thought.
As I began to abseil down the gully I switched on my head torch and looked up at Ray. He was grinning broadly and I realised with a start that he was enjoying himself. I realised that I, too, was grinning. We were in control. All was well. It was a matter of some pride. Even though our plans had been wrecked I was pleased that we could retreat calmly and in good order. Making the right decisions and acting competently in a stressful situation was almost as satisfying as a successful ascent.
I reached the top of the Difficult Crack and tried to see whether the abseil would reach the belay ledge beneath the roof. The beam of my head torch picked out the ropes as I flicked them out into space and tried to guess whether they were long enough. I decided that they would just reach on the stretch of the ropes and lowered myself down into the airy space of the corner. My boots touched the ledge just as the knot in the end of the ropes came hard against my hand. Clipping myself to a bolt, I carefully released the ropes from the belay plate and kept a tight hold on the knot.
‘OK.’ I heard Ray’s faint cry of acknowledgement that the ropes ran free and I let the knotted rope ends bounce away up into the darkness above me. A few moments later there was a scrabbling sound and rocks dislodged by Ray tumbled down the corner as he stepped down the gully. I ducked under the protection of the roof.