Fall on Ice, Ice Screws Pulled Out, New Hampshire, Mount Washington

Publication Year: 1987.

FALL ON ICE, ICE SCREWS PULLED OUT

New Hampshire, Mount Washington

On the morning of February 14,1986, after spending the night at the Harvard Mountaineering Cabin, Rhode Island climbers Peter Barlow (29) and Steven Cournoyer (28) left the cabin for a day of ice climbing in Huntington Ravine on Mount Washington. Their objective was to climb the 180 meter waterfall called Pinnacle Gully. It was another bitter cold morning with a temperature of -24°C with winds above timberline of 30 knots gusting to 55 knots. The sky was mostly clear. Both climbers were well equipped for the weather, were familiar with the route, and were wearing Joe Brown helmets. This was Cournoyer’s second season of ice climbing and Barlow’s twelfth. Barlow is an ice climbing instructor with the Narragansett Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club.

Around 1100, Barlow began leading up the first pitch. There was an alarming amount of very brittle shell ice, but just enough patches of good blue ice to lure him upward. At the end of the pitch, Barlow rigged up a two screw belay and brought Cournoyer up. Cournoyer belayed Barlow using a Munter hitch on a “pearabiner” attached to his sit harness. Their belay consisted of a Snarg and Chouinard ice screw, both about 23 centimeters long, joined together with a sling. Attached to the sling was an Air Voyager and it was clipped directly to Cournoyer’s sit harness. About six meters up from the belay, Barlow ran into a great deal of brittle ice. He was attempting to place some protection when the ice around him gave way causing him to fall. Cournoyer realized that Barlow was falling and made an attempt to haul in some rope. The rope went taut, Barlow seemed to be stopped for a second, then Cournoyer was ripped off his belay stance. Both climbers fell to the bottom of the gully and then tumbled an additional 180 meters down the steep rock studded snow slope called “the fan,” finally coming to rest near the floor of the ravine.

Fortunately for Barlow and Cournoyer, there were several parties of climbers who witnessed their fall and immediately went to their aid. Among the climbers responding was M.R.S. member Kirt Winkler, an E.M.T., and John Jackson, the Harvard Cabin caretaker. Jackson was carrying an AMC radio and called over to Tom Liscord, Tuckerman Ravine caretaker, informing him of the accident. Liscord then radioed the information to U.S. Forest Service snow rangers Bray Ray and Stu Hoyt who were assessing avalanche conditions in Tuckerman Ravine at the time. Within 30 minutes Ranger Ray drove the Forest Serice Thikol to the scene with Hoyt, Liscord and medical supplies. In the meantime, Barlow, who was unconscious, and Cournoyer who had a fractured ankle, facial lacerations and severe body contusions, were assessed and packaged for transport with rescue equipment stored in a nearby rescue cache. The injured climbers were transported by Thikol to Pinkham Notch arriving at 1335 and were taken by Gorham Ambulance to Memorial Hospital in North Conway for treatment. (Source: Michael Pelchat, Manager, Mount Washington State Park)

Analysis

John Jackson reported that the ice screws, runner and Air Voyager were attached to Cournoyer’s harness and that none of the tabs on the Air Voyager had parted. This means that the ice screws broke out of the ice under less than 400 kilograms of force. Cournoyer believes that both screws used on the belay were placed at the proper angle, and that they owe their lives to the Joe Brown helmets they were wearing.

This was the fifth consecutive day of a cold wave that dropped the average daily temperatures to -25°C. Pinnacle Gully is a constantly forming ice flow and the extreme cold temperatures may have caused even the apparently good layers of ice to be weakly bonded to the main ice flow. Chopping away at the layered surface ice until one finds the solid, core ice and then placing at least three long screws equally tensioned to the belayer may prevent this from occurring under brittle ice conditions. (Source: Michael Pelchat, Manager, Mount Washington State Park)