The Crevasse

Hi, everybody! Here are some Kodachromes taken in 1955 on Dauntless Glacier in the Coast Range of British Columbia. You see our strongest climber attempting to jump a big crevasse. Not succeeding, scrabbling to plant his ice axe and his feet as he slowly slides downward.

There is, of course, a rope involved. At the other end of the rope, the other half of the team, a competent belayer with the climbing rope around a securely embedded axe, ready for the quick catch.

The failed jumper swings back against this ice wall, and climbs back to his belayer calling for tension on the rope as needed.

The leader was now straddling the crevasse. The smallest and lightest climber, protected by a second rope and a second belayer, climbed over on his back.

I must mention, delicately, ...that the second man has wet trousers from sitting in the snow belaying the person behind him...as did we all.

With good rope handlers now on both sides of the crevasse, two things remained. First, to relay the heavier day-packs across.

The rest of the party rappeled about 25 feet into the crevasse.

Always protected by a belay, of course, they landed on a partially collapsed snow bridge inside the crevasse and tiptoed across it. Then, as you see above, they climbed a rope on the opposite wall of the crevasse by using short rope “stirrups” and prussik knots. (Prussiks were ingenious knots that slid upwards when they bore no weight, but would not slide down when weight was put on them.)
 

Done with the crevasse crossing, our party trundled on up Dauntless Glacier to the top of Mt. Vigilant, seen here peeking over its last ice bastions.

From the summit a better looking return route was picked out, to avoid the big crevasse. But large glaciers always have some surprises, and as I remember, we arrived back in base camp very late.