Selflessness on Cerro Torre - Success, injury, and salvation on "an impossible mountain"
Vložit
- čas přidán 9. 07. 2019
- After the making first ascent of Fitz Roy in 1952, Lionel Terray gazed west and declared the nearby Cerro Torre "an impossible mountain." Although modern equipment and accurate forecasts have negated that initial description, the mountain still presents an immense challenge to experienced climbers.
During a brief period of stable weather in February 2019, several parties succeeded and reached its rarely visited summit. But on the way down disaster struck, when high temperatures led to rockfall that struck one team of climbers.
This is the story of that accident and the heroic actions that followed...
If you plan to climb in the Chalten Massif, please consider donating to the volunteer search and rescue team: The Comision de Auxilio Fabio Stedile.
For donations under US$100, please use www.paypal.com/centroandino and make sure to note in your transfer that the money is for "Comision de Auxilio"
For donations over US$100, please use a wire transfer to avoid Paypal transaction fees. Details below:
Asociacion Centro Andino El Chalten
Banco Nacion
Av. del Libertado 1408
El Calafate, Santa Cruz
Argentina
Account number: 73501573762
Swift code: NAC NAR BANEU
This is what it’s all about. The unnamed team’s response is what it’s all about. Excellent.
I just stumbled onto your video while browsing others from Patagonia. I was part of a small rescue team that left Chalten on foot, with hopes of meeting your group on the other side of Paso del Viento. It was said that a helicopter rescue could be unlikely, hence this small group was organized. After only about 2 hours of leaving town, we heard the helicopter coming in and pass above us, towards the Continental Icecap. Not long after, we were told through the radio that the extraction had been successful and that our aid was no longer necessary. It was such a relief for everyone. We were really happy that things went well that day. Thanks for sharing the story and congrats on a great season of climbing in Chalten, but must importantly, for making it out alive. Cheers!
Thanks Mauricio! We were really impressed with how many people were eager to help. Fortunately, the chopper was able to fly but we are so grateful for all the other effort that was expended to help us.
Unlike the shit show that happens at commercial climbs at Everest, that's how real mountaineers/climbers behaves.
PS: Awesome, short, and to the point video. No heroic gimmicks. Loved it!
This story is so overwhelming I am tearing up over my morning coffee. I have never been in such dire straits on the mountain but I have witnessed this type of camaraderie among total strangers-it is always inspiring.
Unbelievable. What an amazing story.
Scary experience glad Jess made it. The community has some good people in it.
So sorry for your difficulties and injuries.
Although, you are very fortunate that El Chalten has grown and developed into a climbers’ town, otherwise, your story would not have included a helicopter. It was only a few short years ago that El Chalten was a village of just 300 people with no garbage service and no police department.
The beauty of the area is staggering, as can be the severity of the weather. I observed that 10,000’ vertical railroad spike called Cerro Torre from many viewpoints below, at all times grateful to see its majesty from relative safety.
Thank you for sharing your story and for making this video. It’s a graphic reminder that not all conquests have fairytale endings.
I had same breaks and cried all night on sofa before getting to hospital. I cannot imagine what she went through. Hero's saved her life!
Someone shared a link in Reddit about this film. A mixture of Cerro Torre, mountains, state of mind, wild nature, altruism is... simply overwhelming! In a couple of hours, it will begin a new year (2021) and IMHO this is the perfect closure for this "particular" year.
What a group of selfless badasses!
If you happen to ever write up this story, I'd love to hear more about your team's decisions before the accident and how you reflected on and assessed those decisions afterwards. These are valuable lessons for the broader community. Thanks for sharing!
Jess has written a bit about her experience but I don't know if she has chosen to share it publicly. I don't have any plans to write it up formally myself, but I'll try to briefly address some of our decisions here.
Accidents usually involve a compounding series of poor decisions, and our accident was no different. The two primary mistakes that I think are worth focusing on include our decision to try this particular route during warm weather, and our complacency during the descent.
Patagonia is notorious for sustained periods of bad weather, especially strong winds. In recent years, the brief periods of low wind have often been accompanied by warm weather. This poses a huge danger because it can cause frozen terrain to thaw, break apart, and fall onto climbers. The Rangi Route on Cerro Torre is a bad route to chose during warm conditions. There are multiple sections where climbers are exposed to thawing overhead hazards, including long stretches as you interweave between the summit snow mushrooms and also the slopes leading to the Col de Esperanza (where our accident occurred). We should not have tried this route during warm weather.
At the same time, the competitiveness among climbers in El Chalten and increasing crowds in the nearby mountains can make selecting an appropriate route based on the conditions extremely difficult. Unfortunately, I believe many climbers will continue to make poor route selections. When this occurs, our second mistake (complacency during the descent) could be worth learning from.
The descent from the Col de Esperanza usually involves a series of 6-8 rappels on moderate angle ice slopes. While we descended we noticed some small rock debris in the center of these slopes that had obviously been deposited by falling rocks from the cliffs above. However, we ignored this danger and decided to use existing rappel anchors that would bring us across the center of the slope. In retrospect, this decision was based on convenience rather than safety. We could have gone a little slower and built our own anchors to stay on the left side of the slope away from the debris field in the center (looker's left). We would still have needed to traverse across the center of the slope eventually, but we could have done it inside a crevasse where time in the rockfall zone would have been minimal and the upslope lip of the crevasse would have provided some protection. The German team that helped us did exactly this and they estimated they spent less than one minute in the danger zone (we probably spent 30 min).
In summary, I would strongly encourage climbers in the Chalten Massif to make careful route selections based on existing conditions. Don't be reluctant to change your plans when you get into the mountains and realize that conditions are different than expected. If you do make a poor route decision and find yourself in a dangerous situation, make every possible effort to minimize the hazard. Don't choose the easiest path, chose the safest path.
@@jacramer11 Take that guilt off belay. Cut it away. However, this discussion should have been in the video. For that you are still guilty.
@@jacramer11 Thank you for sharing the lessons learned and helping us all to stay safer in the mountains.
This is what climbing is about, my deepest respect!
Stunning fotos and video, honest and perfect storytelling. This deserves a lot more views. Congrats on topping out a beautifull mountain. Exellent video.
Amazingly inspirational video. Thanks for sharing. Bravo to everyone involved in Jess' rescue. Top effort!
inspiring story, I guess that's why they call it adventure.
People can be awsome. For me these are the most inspiring mountaineering films. This is what I aspire to be.
Spent many weekends scrambling up mountains in Canada and this film brought it all back (nothing we did compared to this climb though)-the spirit of brotherhood when on a mountain was real and you displayed it with class and then told a great story. Hope Jess has a full recovery and congrats to all climbers involved.
I've never done anything like in this video. However I am a long distance hiker. A few years ago I came upon an elderly couple lost in the woods. I contacted rescuers to come and help get them out. During the hike out, I learned the couple lived near me. It fealt good to help the couple out. Otherwise they wouldve had to sleep the night outdoors and lost.
Incredible storytelling and a great film! Keep up the good work. One of the better films on youtube.
Absolutely tremendous story of selflessness and love for your fellow man and woman.
Wow. I enjoyed watching this adventure and selfless acts of heroism
Amazing story. Happy to see everyone safe end of the day.
Unreal. You guys are amazing. A nice tribute to those who sacrificed their own ambitions. Forever grateful.
amazing story ...glad everything turned out well !
All is well what ends well; gorgeous mountain and great human adventure!
I really enjoyed your video! Thanks for sharing your story! 👏
Incredible video, glad you guys made it safe at the end!
Mind blowing! Heros, really inspiring! Thanks
This was insane!!!! Thank you for sharing and bloody awesome job
Absolutely incredible.
Incredible video about your experiences on the mountain. Really glad everyone is relatively safe, that is a terrifying accident.
Came here after reading about Fitz and Soloing in a Book. And I'm glad that I did!
You guys are extraordinary and an inspiration ❤️ Keep living. The society is already dying.
Stay in your Flowstate ❤️ More Power ⭐
What a story. I wasn’t expecting that...It was a tear jerker.. very happy everyone made it👍
It’s awesome ! Congrats !
Selfish or Selfless what defines you at 10,000feet and what defines you at 28000 feet is the question , are you even the same person ...
When all those people walked past David Sharpe that morning to try and summit Everest It Showed me how selfish people can be or just are ! They all perceived their chance of hiking up the tallest mountain in The world as more important than the chance of trying to help this stranger that put himself in that situation In the first place .... it’s such a difficult thing to imagine but I think for certain the lack of O2 is the defining factor !
But maybe it’s strength of character !
Some beautiful moments
Thank you
Very different situations. Not comparable. Did you know that it took 3 sherpas more than 2 hours to drag Sharpe out from the cave, just 2 metres into the sunlight in the morning? He was still alive but unable to move. No one could have saved him. He was dead the moment he sat down in that cave. The cold would have immediately incapacitated him and without being able to walk at all no rescue was possible. In the death zone any attempt to help someone who can’t walk will fail and probably take the helpers lives as well.
Beautiful spirited people. ♥️ I pray Jess only suffers the memory loss. Though that too is a shame. The other climbers, I'm sure recognized that it just as easily could have been one of them. So brave. & told honestly.
Bravo guys!Unbelieveable story!well done to all!
Good story, feel good story ... thanks for sharing.
Awesome video! Nice one guys
What an amazing story!
Great film!
Great film, Bravo all!
Amazing, good the outcome was great💪👍
Great film! Really. Wow!
Wow. Glad everyone made it.
Amazing story
That weather is no joke on the torre
WOW ! what a epic experience
Incredible!
very impressing story...
Excellent
What a story!!!
RESPECT!!
Parabéns!
Friends forever
That's one wicked mountain!
Glad this had a happy end... Hope Jesse is alright
Wicked awesome but wicked nuts lol lol
Right on boys!!
Safe to all.
And to those that lay down may you rest at peace and with the mountains.
wow..
8:56 JESUS THAT LOOKED BRUTAL
holy shit was this a good video just stumbled apon this
I've climbed a number of peaks in North America with some serious challenges, but nothing near as harrowing as what you guys had to deal with. This was a very exciting, and emotionally moving video that I really enjoyed.
I wanted to share it with my four grand sons, who would love to see it, but unfortunately you chose not to edit out the unnecessary foul language. That's sad because I can't share an otherwise compelling and well produced video.
just casually tagged FitzRoy
Just for reference, the eiger was considered unclimbable. Was. Uli climbed it in 2 hours a few years ago
Do you have any links to articles about the accident before you?
👏👏👏👏👏👏
If you are internally bleeding from a fracture, is it still okay to compress whatever you broke? Curious. Seems like good information to know
Lot of climbers in Everest are weekend warriors with little skill and lot of money to burn. This contributes to the overcrowding problem. However there are many stories of selflessness, esp by the Sherpas and other climbers. Some even lost their life while trying to rescue others....
Love the music at the end!
👍🏻💪
better than everest for sure
"Cerro Torre" literally means "tower mountain" in spanish. The perfect name for that one
Holy shit.
Great story. Can’t believe the heartless bastard that gave it a dislike. Lol
Any clues into how she went into cardiact arrest??
We can not know for sure, but the final straw was likely receiving anesthesia. I tried to answer this question a little more thoroughly in a reply to another comment:
"...a broken leg can be a serious thing when it's combined with sleep deprivation, severe dehydration, extreme exhaustion, and delayed treatment. Jess's swelling, injured leg also remained inside a restrictive boot so the rescuers could carry her without too much discomfort. If you watch closely you can actually see her showing some of the initial signs of shock before the helicopter arrives (pale, clammy skin with an ashen hue). When you combine all the variables with anesthesia, as Andrew MItchell said, decompensation and cardiac arrest become a real concern. And that's exactly what occurred."
One thing you don´t say in this great video is that at the very same time you got injured there was another rescue going on and another rescue party was already set to rescue you... It would´ve been grate from you saying thank you also to the hellicopter crue and the rescue party that took you out from the mountain....
You're correct, there was another rescue of a Japanese climber on Aguja Rafael Juarez going on at the same time. That situation was probably even more serious and the life-saving rescue performed by Jim Reynolds and Jason Lakey certainly deserves its own praise. Kudos to those guys and the 30+ other people that sacrificed their ambitions to help an injured person in the Torre Valley.
The people involved in the Cerro Torre rescue depicted here are extremely grateful for the efforts of the helicopter crew and the people that starting to hike out to assist us. I did try to express this gratitude in the video at 11:30. Chris and Jess were flown out of the mountains in the helicopter. Afterward, the other rescue teams traveling to our position were told to return to town. That left me and the other 7 climbers shown in this video on our own. We then hiked 16 hours back to Chalten without outside assistance.
I'm not into heights.watching this ,I thought would help.
But hell no. Youall nuts, in ah great way.lol be safe!
Lol, 2 mins in and this guy sounds BITTER.
Poor start but stay with it, looks epic.
But who runs out of food......that’s ridiculous, surely? Like every single team ran out.
I wish for discussion on poor choices that were factors in this accident. Climbing during the time of the day when there is the most Rock and ice fall?
Yeah but that was on the descent where the option of not climbing is limited. But sure, with hindsight I am sure they will all be reflecting on choices that were made.
Obviously people flock to Everest because it is the "highest peak in the world", and because it is relatively 'doable' if an inexperienced climber is well enough prepared and surrounds herself or himself with the proper support and guidance. I wonder if K2, and not Everest was the actual highest mountain in the world. I assume a lot fewer people would attempt it, but a lot more people would have died attempting to climb it.
"None of us are pros". I don't think you're amateurs
I say take up Tennis, lol you all amaze me
cardiac arrest for a broken leg? wtf
Anesthesia does some weird shit, super inconsistent
Before this accident, I would have asked the exact same question. But I now know that a broken leg can be a serious thing when it's combined with sleep deprivation, severe dehydration, extreme exhaustion, and delayed treatment. Jess's swelling, injured leg also remained inside a restrictive boot so the rescuers could carry her without too much discomfort. If you watch closely you can actually see her showing some of the initial signs of shock before the helicopter arrives (pale, clammy skin with an ashen hue). When you combine all the variables with anesthesia, as Andrew MItchell said, decompensation and cardiac arrest become a real concern. And that's exactly what occurred.
It those climbers were not there, or were not feeling charitable, chris may have and jess almost certainly would have died.
Why? Why put yourself And others into harms way... why??
You guys are f.... hardcore mountain climbers .....
The chilly root nomenclaturally jam because tiger preauricularly taste off a natural lisa. immense, horrible eyeliner
That is STUPIDITY at its best to see that sort of,
Lack of respect and just a title of Everest
Toppers. Sad.
shit this is where my tax money go to? to rescue hillbillies? no wonder this country is in debt.
How have you got enough money to just casually stay there a few weeks for a climb??
I won't pretend that this trip wasn't a huge luxury, and I consider myself extraordinarily lucky to be able to do stuff like this. From a global perspective I am certainly rich. Compared to fellow Californians, however, my income actually hovers near the poverty line.
It is possible to keep a trip like this reasonably affordable (at least for someone working in the western world). During this trip I was paying less than $10 per day for a bunk in a hostel in town. It wasn't a plush living situation, but 50% of the time we were in the mountains anyways. By also scrimping on flights and food, I would estimate I spent less during this 7-week trip than many Americans do on a 7-day vacation staying at decent hotels.
The obvious variable I've ignored so far is time. How can I afford to take several weeks off from work? The answer is that I've structured my life around seasonal jobs, supplemented with remote writing assignments that I can complete anywhere. I make way less money than I would if I did similar work at a full-time job, but it gives me lots of freedom to undertake the adventures that inspire me.
spoiled by bad language..
Selflessness? They chose to climb a dangerous mountain and were nearly killed; that's not selflessness, it's stupidity... Reacting to a disastrous situation that was created by your own stupidity is a lesson learned, not selflessness....lool..
There is always someone who makes a comment like this and I always wonder what kind of life they live. Do they never take any risk? Do they hide under the blankets in bed all day? This was a story of climbers helping climbers. How about the stupidity of not living life??
@@matthew6732
There is always some type of comment like this in the comment section, and I wonder if the idiots who post it understand that there's a million things that you can do in this life -- adventures you can take part in, people you can meet, relationships you can forge, exotic travels you can embark on; all of which don't involve climbing up an extremely dangerous mountain covered in ice, that results in things like falling down and breaking your leg, or often times death. I often wonder if people like you are simply too stupid to realize that there's a whole host of other things you can in this life that constitute "living," which don't involve putting your life in immediate danger.
Not taking part in stupidity does not equal living under the covers in your room... Statements like that only come from simple-minded types...
But hey, do you! 😀😀
@@DanielReyes-zu8em Thanks for you reply:) First I thought you were just having a bad day, but it seems you really believe what you said. I am impressed! 'adventures you can take part in...' What kind of adventure does not involve some risk? Travelling to 'exotic' involves risk, relationships involve risk, driving involves risk, smoking, not having a healthy diet, going to the pub (covid-19). Some people just need a higher level of 'risk' to feel that they are living. Why criticize? 'Statements like that...' It was a question, hence the question mark, not a statement. And why are you watching videos of people doing dangerous climbs if you think it is so stupid??
@@matthew6732 I watch it in awe of their stupidity, it makes for great entertainment. And yes, everything involves some risk, but my point went over your head. There's a world of difference between there being "some" risk, and intentionally doing something that could result in your immediate death... Driving a car could kill you, sure... but freeclimbing El Capitan, base jumping off of cliffs, or ice climbing a dangerous peak in some remote region of the world under bad weather conditions, exponentially increases your chance of death or life altering injury.... And should you be injured or killed engaging in such activity, you're not selfless or a hero, you're a victim of your choices.
I'm sure you won't understand the point...but that's ok.. 😉... I get that some people live for the rush in the activities I listed above, but they come with a high risk of death or injury...but it all makes for great entertainment... Don't let my comments bother you though pal.. 😉
Get out there and start "living." - What are you even doing on CZcams when you're supposedly leading such an adventurous life??..lool
Just try and enjoy the video sweetheart, and don't get so bothered by my comments, if you can, "Mr Adventurous." 😂
@@DanielReyes-zu8em Very nice. When I want stupidity for entertainment I read your comments.