First Alpine Fall and an Update

Once again I'm sorry that I haven't posted for a while but I haven't really been able to do much climbing, this is down to 3 main reasons:
1. When we went to the Alps we managed to have another fall, we were coming down a very exposed, (approximately 500m in height) very steep snow/ice slope (roughly 70-80 degrees at a guess) that we had already gone up earlier in the day. However as I'm sure you know, climbing down is a lot harder than climbing up and the sun had been beating down causing the snow to melt slightly, and therefore lose the good firm holding that it had had on the way up. This meant that the snow/ice under my dads feet gave way and he started sliding uncontrollably down the slope and wasn't self arresting, (when we stopped we realised that he had lost his ice axe so he may have lost it as soon as he slipped, this would explain the lack of a self arrest.) We were roped together with him climbing above me, in hindsight this was probably not a good idea and we shouldn't have been roped together at all. As soon as I saw him slip I dived into the self arrest position and dug the pick of my axe as far into the snow as I could in the hope that I would be able to stop him. However as soon as the rope went tight I started getting pulled down the slope with him, still in the self arrest position. There just wasn't enough solid ice to help slow us down. We slid for approximately 200m, for most of which I was convinced we were going to die as there was a large cliff on one side of the slope halfway down. We slid until we hit a pile of rocks level with the top of the cliff but just off to the side. I still don't know if we were both unconscious or just dazed but I certainly do not remember the final bit of the slide or hitting the rocks at all. My dad woke up in a lot of pain and it was easily understandable why as his helmet was completely caved in, he must have hit the rocks head first. As soon as he came round he got to his feet and started staggering around on this very exposed patch of rocks and I had to keep trying to persuade him to sit down until his balance came back. He then realized that he had no idea where we were, where our campsite was, what the campsite looked like or anything. It was fairly obvious that his short term memory had taken a serious bash and I was getting worried because you always hear about how unpredictable head injuries can be. Dad then immediately went back to his army training and was trying to assess the situation in terms of what kit had we lost, how injured were we etc. This was when he realised that he had lost his ice axe, he then proceeded to ask me at least 10 times in a row where it was, completely forgetting that he had just asked me and obviously wouldn't believe me when I told him this. Instead he told me to, "stop being so stupid" and to go and get my axe which had ended up just a couple of metres above me. It was at this point that I realized I couldn't stand on my left leg at all and as soon as I tried I felt a numbness start creeping up my leg. As soon as felt this I knew there was no way I was going to make it down another 200m of steep ice/snow, across a few crevasses, a kilometre walk to the cable car station if it was still open by the time we got there and god knows how far if it wasn't. So I told him we needed to call mountain rescue, this was not greeted with a particularly enthusiastic response but eventually he agreed. As soon as the helicopter arrived the medic gave me a dose of morphine and put my leg in a splint. Getting airlifted was certainly an experience, even more so as I was considered an emergency patient as they had no idea how bad a break it was in my leg. This meant that the helicopter flew off to the hospital as I was being winched up which is a fairly scary procedure! Dangling well over 2 kilometres above the ground on just a thin cable certainly does wake you up! When we got to the hospital I was put on a drip and we were both given a couple of X-rays before we were told that we could go, they gave us a prescription for some painkillers and that was it. It turned out that I had broken my fibula and the bone had actually bent inwards under the force at the break, I've been told that the bone will be bent for the rest of my life but as it is not the main weight bearing bone it shouldn't be too much of an issue. So due to this I had a few months off climbing.
2. As I had the two biggest falls of my life within 3 weeks of each other in the summer holidays it severely knocked my confidence. This meant that I wasn't as enthusiastic about climbing as usual, due to the fact that I was climbing much easier grades and generally not enjoying it as much.
3. As soon as I started to get back into my climbing and started training again, I was training on my fingerboard and whilst doing pull-ups on the small two finger pockets all my fingers except my ring finger on my right hand slipped off. This caused all of my weight to shock load onto the one finger which instantly popped out. Luckily it popped straight back in as well but it has left me with a serious lack of strength, and as I'm still unsure exactly how much damage I have done to it I'm not going to be climbing seriously for quite some time.


So there you have a few reasons why I haven't been out climbing and putting posts up. Unfortunately I've also got exams coming up which will mean that my parents won't let me go climbing at weekends so there not be any more posts till after then.
However my friends and I are planning a trip to Fontainebleau this summer so I will give you an account of that when we get back.