Narrow escape for N.Z. mountaineers

Press, 19 July 1988, Page 14

Narrow escape for N.Z. mountaineers

PA Wellington Two New Zealanders have had a close shave with death on the second highest mountain in the world, K2 in Pakistan.

Gary Ball fell head first into a crevasse when a snow bridge collapsed and his weight pulled his companion, Lydia Bradey, off her feet and towards the edge of the crevasse.

In a letter home, the four members of the team said only soft snow on the edge of the crevasse jammed Bradey and saved both of their lives. The letter, dated June 22, had only just been received in Wellington. It said the team — Ball, Bradey, Rob Hall and Bill Atkinson — had split into two teams to try and find a way through the icefall guarding the way to the bottom of the mountain. There was fresh snow on the ground and when the weather deteriorated to driving sleet and with visibility down to 30m, Hall and Atkinson and five Americans, who are also on the mountain, returned to camp.

Several hours went by before Ball and Bradey appeared out of the storm with a tale of their escape. "Gary was in front and roped to Lydia about 10m

behind,” says the letter home. “Gary broke through a crevasse bridge and so lunged forward in an effort to clear the gap, but found it was a wider crevasse than he could outreach. “The whole bridge collapsed and he plummeted head-first into the darkness. "Lydia was pulled forward off her feet and jammed in the top edge of the crevasse. Only the soft snow on the edge had saved their lives.” The letter says that Ball swung free on the rope and was blinded by the snow covering his glasses as Bradey prepared an anchor with her ice axe.

More than an hour went by before Ball managed to climb up the rope using special metal clamps. The letter home says he had a sore shoulder muscle, but “as he admitted having fallen head first” he avoided serious injury. “We mountaineers rarely lose our sense of humour — it was not hard to conclude that K2 had given us a severe lesson on our first day.” The letter said that the weather improved and with it the team found a route through the icefall. They have since established three camps up the Abruzzi ridge with the top camp at 7350 m. At the end of June, according to the letter, they planned to establish a temporary fourth camp at about 7900 m before making a dash for the summit at 8615 m. The team said it had achieved so much in two

weeks that they had outstripped their bodies’ capacity to adjust to the altitude and had pulled back to base camp on the glacier for a rest.

With the arrival of a Yugoslav expedition to attempt the “magic line,” a climb on the south face, and the expected arrival of a Spanish team to attempt the Abruzzi spur, the New Zealanders said the base camp area was rapidly becoming something of a village of tents. The New Zealanders are expected on top of K2 between now and the end of the July. They are then due to travel to Katmandu in Nepal, meet a special youth expedition from New Zealand, and accompany them to the base of Mount Everest before making an attempt by the standard South Col route.