TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED
ACCORDING to 80s popstars A-ha, the sun always shines on TV, and by and large that’s true for social media and guidebooks, too. You’d be forgiven for thinking that the weather is always perfect, gear performs exactly as it should and nothing ever goes wrong. It doesn’t take many hill days of our own to realise that those perfect smiles in the face of adversity are not a realistic portrayal of what really happens when hiking horrors strike!
Risk is built into the outdoors, and that is an intrinsic part of the charm and the challenge. The weather can change, maps can be lost, compasses can be used upside down, tents can rip, and waterproofs can leak. It’s how we cope when they do that define us and the time we spend in beautiful, sometimes dangerous places.
Nietzsche’s most famous aphorism was ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’, but why and how? We asked a range of TGO contributors and general outdoor enthusiasts, of varying experience levels, about some of their less successful outdoor ventures. We all make mistakes, but it’s what we do with that knowledge afterwards that counts.
We hope the tales of woe and wisdom here will raise a smile, a grimace or both, but ultimately may save you some suffering of your own, the next time you are caught unawares. Because it happens to us all (except on Instagram)…
A lightbulb moment
Mountain Leader Lucy Wallace is temporarily left in the dark.
My partner Wally and I had climbed Garadh Gully on Ben Nevis in perfect conditions. We stopped for lunch in the shadow of Tower Ridge and discussed our next move. The cleft of Glovers Chimney reached for blue skies – and we could see the glinting figures of climbers crossing Tower Gap. A cascade of ice poured out of the bottom. This was harder than anything I’d done before, but it looked great, and ‘not that far’.
It was Wally’s lead, and ice screw after ice screw sank into perfect ice. He belayed before he reached the safety of the rock walls. Eventually came “Climb when you’re ready”. I pulled over a bulge to find him belayed to a stubby screw and two ice axes.
Nothing eats time faster than a winter climb when you are a bit gripped. The light was fading and the wind had got up when we reached the top pitch – the chimney proper. Wally pulled his head torch on, and it illuminated steep cracks bounded by rock walls. I put mine
