Silvio1973 wrote:Ok some precions are perhpas needed.
I was there in 2007 along with a climber, Michael Ybarra, that you might know. We met on Summitpost and climbed in the Mont Blanc in 2006 and in Peru in 2007 for about one month, including around Siula Grande.
I do not believe the full story because there are too many strange things. This does not mean it is all false. I believe it's not all true.
It's just there are some holes in the story. Here the list
- Why Simon remains so many days in the Base Camp. They had limited provisions and he knew Joe was died. Would you remain so many days, rather than packing up and head back. Would you have spent almost a week taking the sun overthere? I do not even think they were so long on food supply and gas.
And I don't believe he was just waiting for the donkey to be there to leave. I have climbed there and the distance from the closest village is not that big.
- It always sounded strange to me those donkeys arrived exactly the day after Joe returned to the camp.
- I cannot believe that Simon hold Joe for such a long time before taking the decision to cut the rope. And even then I do not understand why he did not even try for example to tie a prusik on the rope in order to release the tension on the belaying device and pass the knot. Indeed Simon was too much of a good climber to do such a stupid thing as giving all the rope to the belayed partner and find himself as a stupid with the knot blocking the belaying device.
- Simon does not check where exactly Simon is after the fall in the crevasse. Now I am a very stupid person but I would have made an anchor (may be the day after) to secure the body to a rope for future recovery.
I don't know what exactly happen, it's just the story as it is has too many holes for me.
I've been there also (the base camp area only, in 2008), but that doesn't really mean much.
I think Simon was exhausted after getting back to their base camp and needed a couple of days rest before packing up and heading back. He was probably also a bit depressed by the events and had a hard time getting going. I don't know that they were at all short on food at their base camp and they didn't need gas there because they used a liquid fuel stove there.
Tying on a prussik while holding the belay sounds a bit tricky to me. Easing the load off of the prussik and onto the belay device also seems like it would be a bit difficult since retying the knot would probably result in a good bit of slack between the prussik and the belay device. Of course, a long prussik loop and possibly two prussik loops would help that situation, but maybe Simon only had one short prussik.
As far as any concern for recovering the body, that seems a bit absurd given the time frame. Things were different when they were there than they were in 2007 or 2008. In 2007 the Sendero Luminosa was no longer around and it had become easier to get to and from the Cordillera Huayhuash. What would be done with the body if it had been recovered? Fly it back to England? Who would pay for that?
Sorry, I just don't see the holes that you do.
Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2011 7:56 pm
