Crevasse Rescue: two member rope team

Arrest the fall. Number one, and most important. When glacier traveling with a team of two, the ability for the rescue climber to successfully arrest the fall and stop the movement is paramount. This is the main danger of traveling on a glacier with a team of two; as parties of three or four will have the additional weight and stopping power compared to a single rescuer.

Take a breath, and remember your training. This will be a moment of chaos and remaining calm is essential to perform well for the next 30-60 minutes. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Consider the quality of your arrest, and dig yourself in a moment with your crampons to improve its strength. Consider the hardness of the snow/ice and which tools you have at your disposal to create an anchor.

While ensuring a solid arrest, build a quick one-piece anchor. The hardness of the snow or ice at hand will determine which tool you use to build this first piece. If hard ice, use the longest ice screw stored on your harness. For hard/soft snow, I will typically have a picket (with mid-clip cable pre-attached) easily accessible without having to remove my pack. If hard snow, utilize the picket with a vertical mid-clip method. You may need to use the arresting axe to achieve this placement. If soft snow, create a T-slot with your hand or axe and place the picket as a deadman.

Transfer the load. Using either the pre-attached cable or a sling, clip a locking carabiner from this first anchor piece to the bight knot attaching the rope to your harness. This carabiner is now the “master carabiner/point” and should never be opened throughout the rescue. With axe in hand, ready to arrest if the anchor fails, slowly lower your body to transfer the weight of the fallen climber to the anchor. If the anchor holds, you’ll be completely unweighted, but are still acting as the second piece to the anchor.

Add a prusik to the unweighted side of the rope just after the bight knot. Clip this to your belay loop with a locking carabiner. Until you get in an extra anchor piece(s), this will be your connection to the rope and serve as the backup to the anchor. Stay tied into the end of the rope.

Unclip yourself from the bight knot of the weighted rope, and uncoil the extra rope. Still attached to the system with a prusik, uncoil the extra rope you’re carrying to allow yourself more distance to build a solid second anchor placement. Keep tension on the rope to prevent slack from building in case the first anchor piece fails.

Build a second anchor placement. Again considering the hardness of the snow, build a solid piece with the extra freedom of now holding the weight of the fallen climber. Typically this will be a vertical mid-clipped picket in hard snow or a deadman with picket, axe or skis in soft snow. If the snow is of poor quality, you may need even a third piece to feel confident about the anchor, but for a typical glacier quality, two can be sufficient.

Equalize the two pieces to create a confidence-inspiring, “EARNEST” anchor. Using a cordelette, equalize the two pieces by tying off one end of the cord with a bight knot to a carabiner on the second piece placed (non-master carabiner), threading the other end through the master carabiner, and continuing back and forth between these two carabiners until nearing the end of cord at the non-master carabiner. Remember to not open the master carabiner at any point and only thread the cord through it. On the non-master carabiner, equalize your anchor by adding tension to the cord with the assistance of a block-and-tackle, and then tie off the cord via a munter-mule.

Double-check your anchor system, and take another breath. At this point, all weight of the fallen climber and the hauling system you’re about to build will be supported by this anchor, and you can remove yourself from the mindset of backing up the anchor with your body. Take another breath to calm yourself, as the most stressful part of a two member party crevasse rescue is complete.

Visit the lip of the crevasse and make a visual connection with the fallen climber. Leaving the bight knot at the master carabiner, will be two strands of rope. One is the rope currently supporting the fallen climber, the other is the rescue rope that your prusik was attached to in step 5. Manipulating the prusik and using rescue rope as a tether to the anchor, visit the crevasse lip and make visual contact with the fallen climber. If they are conscious, talk to them and tell them you’re here to get them out of this hole.

Prep and pad the lip of the crevasse. Just off to either side of where the fallen climber is hanging, confirm the prusik is gripping and consider tying a bight knot below the prusik to back up it’s grip. Using your feet and perhaps axe, prepare the lip of the crevasse by knocking off snow/ice to round the edge and make the transition from vertical to horizontal less extreme. Doing so just off to the side of the fallen climber will reduce the amount of snow/ice from falling onto them, and help to keep things simpler. Using an axe or trekking pole, pad/support the lip of the crevasse by placing the tool on the lip to add structure and preventing the rope from cutting into the lip. The tool can be kept in place via a sling and klemheist hitch on the rescue rope to prevent it from falling into the abyss.

If the fallen climber is conscious, drop them a loop of rope with locking carabiner. Assuming they are able to reach this loop, have them attach the carabiner to their belay loop and lock it. This is the first step of the mechanical advantage system (MAS) you’ll create to perform a haul. If this is successful, skip to step 15. If not, prepare to rappel.

If the fallen climber is unconscious or unable to reach a dropped loop of rope, the rescue climber will have to rappel to visit the fallen climber. Add guide-style belay/rappel device with an extension on the rescue rope just above the prusik. Rappel on the single strand rescue rope on an extended rappel with the prusik as a third-hand backup. You may need to unclip/clip the tool padding the lip in order to pass over the edge. Once the fallen climber is reached, tie off your rappel to go hands-free, assess them for emergency trauma, and provide care as necessary. Attach a loop of rescue rope with a locking carabiner to their belay loop. It may be helpful to place them into a chest harness and redirect the rope through a carabiner on the chest harness. Especially if they are unconscious or unable to manage their own body position, the chest harness will help to keep the fallen climber in an upright position.

Ascend the rescue rope up and out of the crevasse. Attach a second prusik (or emergency ascending device such as Petzl Tibloc) above your belay/rappel device, and attach a double-length sling to this as a leg loop. Attach a locking carabiner to the ear (guide-mode hole) of the belay device. While stepping up on the leg loop and supporting yourself with the upper prusik, clip the carabiner from the ear of the belay device to your belay loop. Sit back in your harness which will now be supported by the flipped belay device, and lock this carabiner. Backup this system by tying a clove hitch below the lower prusik to a locking carabiner to your belay loop, and then remove this lower prusik to clean up the working zone. Ascend the rope by raising the upper prusik (now only prusik) and leg loop higher, stepping up, and pulling the slack through the belay device. Once having ascended a couple meters, manipulate the clove hitch to reduce the amount of slack in the backup system. Ascend the rescue rope until up and over the lip of the crevasse and back on the glacier surface. If nearing the edge of the crevasse or unsure as to the safety of the surface, clip back into a prusik on the rescue rope to act as a personal tether to the anchor.

Build a mechanical advantage system (MAS), and perform a haul. Without having to travel all the way back to the anchor, but with enough room to work before the edge of the crevasse, tie a bight knot into the rescue rope to act as a master point for the MAS. The amount of rescue rope you have and the distance below the lip of the fallen climber will affect your distances, as starting closer to the anchor will require more available rope but create a large working space, and starting closer to the edge will require less available rope, but reduce the working space. Attach a progress capture pulley (such as Petzl Micro Traxion) to this new master point. Pull up all the slack from the second side of the loop of rescue rope attached to the fallen climber, thread this into the Traxion, and engage the teeth. The rescue rope will now travel from the “new master point” bight knot to the locking carabiner on the fallen climber’s belay loop, and back up into the Micro Traxion. At this point, a 2:1 MAS has been created, but with little additional effort and a bit more available rope, this can be upgraded to a 6:1 MAS. On the strand coming up from the fallen climber and into the Traxion, attach a prusik (or Petzl Tibloc) below the device. With a non-locking carabiner clip both the prusik and OTHER strand leaving the Traxion. This extra addition to the MAS acts as a 3:1, which upon adding to the existing 2:1 creates an effective 6:1 hauling system. Give yourself some “throw” room for the hauling system by moving this prusik down the rope towards the edge, and pull with all you’ve got. Neglecting friction, you’ll pull 1/6 of the weight of the fallen climber with this system. Also, for every 6 meters you pull up, the fallen climber will rise just 1 meter. Before hauling, the fallen climber is essentially backed-up via the original rope they fell onto. Once they have risen about 1 meter, you’ll need to backup the system to protect against a large fall should the progress capture pulley fail. One effective method is to pull up the slack created in the original rope and tie a large bight knot which essentially shortens that rope.

Assist fallen climber over the crevasse lip and onto the glacier surface. Once the fallen climber is hauled to the lip, it may be difficult to get them up and over the change from vertical to horizontal. Good lip prep will aid this transition. If they are unconscious, this will be even more challenging. If they are conscious, have them push away from the lip with their hands and feet while you continue hauling. Once on the surface, complete a patient assessment and treat potential injuries that resulted from either the fall itself or from considerable time spent hanging in a harness.

Stay and play, or pack and evac. You’ve successfully completed a crevasse rescue. High five! Consider all factors and make an informed decision to either continue or retreat.