Jim Davidson of Colorado fell 80ft into a crevasse on Mt Rainier. He shouldnt be alive but you can watch him on television this week (from mountainproject.com)
http://www.rockandice.com/news/1320-he- ... im-tonight

I heard about this but did not get to see it. So now I have another chance! Glad to hear.

"A climber of nearly 30 years and professional adventure speaker for his company, Speaking of Adventure, Davidson spoke about his Rainier experience recently at an American Alpine Club breakfast at the Ouray Ice Fest."

Wow, a professional adventure speaker with an eponymous company name falls into a crevasse and lives to tell a story about it? Hmmmm. What are the odds?

Klenke wrote:
Wow, a professional adventure speaker with an eponymous company name falls into a crevasse and lives to tell a story about it? Hmmmm. What are the odds?

His partner didn't survive the fall, I don't think it was a publicity stunt as your statement eludes...

Thats a pretty good point! I don't think anyone would go through that much for a public stunt.

The news media tends to embelish the true story... so now it comes to decide what is really accurate.

Seems odd that two "ice climbers" walked across a glacier using ice tools to probe the snow for crevasses, but I guess that's all they had.

Secondly, also seemed strange that the 80-ft crevasse was shown on TV - right in the midist of some rock outcroppings.
The show did not show the precise downward route these two traveled.

And lastly, sure is odd that this guy, will all the "improvised ice climbing tools and techniques"... took 6 hours to climb a mere 80-foot vertical ice wall. That's 13 feet per hour. He must have been taking his time and was in no hurry. The TV show liked to dramatize it as "must get out by sunset or die". Did he go back down and retrive his earlier ice anchors? The show didn't say. Nor did the show mention how many ice anchors he had.

There are some valuable lessons for us here... such as his partner was unable to self arrest and save his falling partner in the soft snow.

Oh... the perils of mountaineers to know to much... and wonder! Well excuse my "armchair mountaineering".

billisfree wrote:Seems odd that two "ice climbers" walked across a glacier using ice tools to probe the snow for crevasses, but I guess that's all they had.

Secondly, also seemed strange that the 80-ft crevasse was shown on TV - right in the midist of some rock outcroppings.
The show did not show the precise downward route these two traveled.

And lastly, sure is odd that this guy, will all the "improvised ice climbing tools and techniques"... took 6 hours to climb a mere 80-foot vertical ice wall.

Bill, you're killing me.

Bill you can ask him this, he's on sp you know. I'm almost sure he's the real one too because I referred him to this site. And sometimes things like crevasse falls can be more serious that what meets the eyes.
http://www.summitpost.org/users/climber ... dson/67874

thanks Josh.

I e-mailed him. I hope he ain't swamped with e-mails.

His slide over soft snow reminds me of my slide on our Sahale climb. My axe would only slow me down... but did not grab until I pulled my body on top of my axe. Duh...

Benjamin: I was eluding to the irony of it, which itself carries with it other allusions.

It is kind of like having 10000 spoons, when all you need is a knife

I don't have TV so I didn't catch the show, but it would be interesting to hear a climber's account of what happened rather than the media...

I know I know that was the lamest thing ever, Alanis and all, I'm really bored right now hehe

Hes not the only person who has had a nasty crevasse fall on Mt. Rainier.

http://alasdairturner.blogspot.com/2009 ... s-ago.html

I was lucky.

Wow... thanks for sharing!

Was there a depression where it collasped? how wide was the collasped section?

I watching right now!