INVOLUNTARY GLISSADE—Vermont, Smuggler’s Notch. At 2:30 p.m. on 4 January 1974, Tom McCrumm (28), Allen Gaines (34), and Harvey Goldstein (26) hiked into Smuggler’s Notch to find an ice gulley to climb. Only a short distance from where we left my car we spotted a short but steep ice gulley on the north side of the road. We traversed up through the woods about 200 yards to the base of the ice gulley. All our equipment, including crampons, were in our packs. We had some difficulty negotiating our way because of a heavy, icy crust under a two-inch layer of snow. At times I used my ice axe to reach up and hook behind a small tree to have something to pull on and for support. Once up to the base of the gulley, I started to locate a suitable spot from which to belay. I got two nuts into a crack in the rock on the right side of the base of the ice gulley and we used that for an anchor. I ran out the full rope length to get to the top of the ice, which was very steep. I tied off to a tree and started to belay up Allen Gaines. Gaines had little or no ice climbing experience before, although he was a strong and enthusiastic climber. He got up with some difficulty. By this time I was getting very cold, and decided to have Allen belay up Harvey, while I untied and walked down through the woods. Two of our friends, Dave Hoffman and Linda Harris, were ski touring on the road below, so I went down to warm up and talk to them. I walked to my car and took off my crampons, ice axe, hardware, and pack. I then walked back up the road to see how Harvey was doing. Harvey called down that he had dropped his ice axe. Allen had lowered his axe and Harvey was using it to complete the climb. I decided I would go back up to the base of the climb to retrieve the ice axe as long as I didn’t have to get on the ice to get to it. I went back up and climbed up the snow at the base of the gulley to retrieve the axe. I started to walk back down my footsteps toward the woods. I was walking on snow across the base of the gulley when I slipped and fell, facing downhill. I was holding the ice axe around the center of the shaft. I was not holding it properly because of the nature of the terrain. I was in snow at least four inches deep which was supporting me with no problem. It was a very moderate slope, probably 20 degrees, and I certainly didn’t feel the need for an ice axe. It was merely the side of the hill in the woods. I started to slide, probably because of the reduced friction on the snow with my nylon windpants. There was no thought in my mind of a self-arrest; it just wasn’t that steep. After sliding only a short distance I realized that I was moving downhill a bit, but my next thought was again that I was going to stop in 15 feet or so, because of the loose snow and the low angle, and that riding was better than walking, so I just sat there for a split second. Apparently what happened was that I suddenly hit bare ice or a layer of heavy crust, and because of my slick windpants, I started to slide pretty fast. Ahead was a five-foot drop-off. It was bare of snow and was, in fact, a short, frozen ice step. I slid over that, still on my rear end, facing downhill, landing hard in the same position. After landing and continuing to slide, I crossed my forearms over my face as I tumbled out of control downhill. I came to rest still sitting, still facing downhill, with one leg cocked up underneath me. I realized that I was hurting a bit, and I was afraid that I might miss a few days of climbing. I checked myself over briefly to see the extent of my injuries, if any. I first noticed that I had bitten my tongue hard enough to make it bleed. I also felt bad pain in my back and side, and in one finger. I called back up to Gaines and Goldstein to inform them that I had fallen, but that I seemed okay, and for them to come right down as soon as they could. I got up on my feet, somewhat painfully, and walked a few hundred feet to my car, where I dug out a codeine tablet from my first aid kit and took it for the pain. My friends took me to the hospital where X rays revealed a cracked rib and compression fracture of the tenth and eleventh vertebrae. This is a fairly common injury in New England among snowmobilers who go over jumps, landing hard on the ground while sitting down. Two days later I went to an orthopedic surgeon at home in Virginia for a more careful examination. He put me into the hospital immediately, where I stayed flat on my back in hyperextension for eight days. I was then put into a hips-to-armpits plaster cast which I had to wear for three months.

Analysis: Dave Hoffman and Linda Harris returned to the location of the

accident the morning after I fell to examine the scene and to attempt to locate my ice axe. I apparently slid about 25-30 feet before going over the little drop-off, and then I slid another 150-200 feet before coming to rest. Dave Hoffman said that he cramponed straight up the fall line where I fell, which also happened to be the drainage for the gulley above where we were climbing the day before. He isn’t sure if there was hard ice or just crust under the snow where I fell, but there was bare hard water ice covering the drop-off I went over, as well as some bare water ice just above it. At no time prior to the slip did I feel like I was on ground that was technical in any way at all. Throughout my fall I kept thinking how low angle it all was, and that I was going to stop in another few feet. If there was any lack of judgment on my part which contributed to the accident, it was in failing to realize that I was crossing a water drainage and that, although the angle was very low and there was enough snow so that my boots were leaving footprints two to three inches deep, there was still probably hard water ice underneath. Because of this fact I should have had on my crampons. Steep ice gulleys can be just as slippery at their bases where the angle may be very low. Also, I should have been carrying the ice axe properly so I could have self-arrested immediately when I picked up speed. It’s also wise to realize just how little friction a body has with ice, or even snow, when clad in a nylon wind parka and nylon wind pants. The overall angle of my fall was probably no more than 25 degrees, but I was moving fast, and was lucky that I didn’t hit a tree or rock when I stopped. (Source: Tom McCrumm.)