Book Review: “The Ledge” . (Davidson and Vaughan, Ballantine 2011)
In June, 1992, two young friends climbed Mt. Rainier by the (north) Liberty Ridge, then descended the Emmons Glacier to the east. Within view of the Camp Schurman Ranger hut below the glacier, the leading climber, Jim Davidson, fell through a snow bridge into an 80-foot crevasse and pulled in his uphill partner, Mike Price, after him. Jim was held back somewhat by Mike with the rope and survived in reasonable condition, but Mike fell free and was killed. They both landed on a snow plug, where mountaineer Jim was left with the job of climbing out of the vertical crevasse alone to escape. 
Jim Davidson had done some moderate ice climbing, and mentions having faced angles of up to about 70 degrees previously. His crevasse was narrow enough at the bottom to bridge for the first 20 feet, but then he had to choose either wall above that: one wall was a little less than vertical but still beyond his experience, and led up to the opposite side of the bridge from where he punched through, so he chose the side that led to his hole. But that wall of the crevasse was vertical most of the way, with a bulge to get over partway up, and actually leaning in at the snow bridge: see the realistic picture of his situation at left — a horrible prospect.
He had crampons and 50cm technical axes (of that era), plus slings, carabiners, and seven ice screws, as well as his end of their 9mm rope for a
Tools Available, 1992
self-belay. The type of axes he had isn’t known, but in 1992 they would have been straight- or kink-shafted (leash-type) tools that would take an expert technical climber to use successfully as a conventional ice climb in this case: see the photo at right for examples.
The ice screws were two Snargs (pound-in/unscrew tubes), four of the latest Chouinards, and a Russian-titanium-type screw, all of which were very strong but difficult to get into solid ice: see the photo of his actual gear (below).
This book, “The Ledge”, describes their climb of Mt. Rainier and the epic performance of Jim Davidson to save himself from the vertical 80-foot crevasse by leapfrogging ice screws and descending from time to time to retrieve the lower ones.
It’s a sobering lesson for both mountaineers and waterfall ice climbers, as the situation of the lower person falling into a crevasse on a sloping glacier,
and pulling in his uphill partner deserves serious consideration and review of all possible methods for handling it, and likely replanning, especially on bare ice or ice covered by shallow snow:
What could YOU do for that situation?!
Available at the Calgary Public Library Crowfoot Branch, and possibly others.
Orvel Miskiw
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