:20:07
I was left hanging, looking
down, as all this snow and ice
:20:12
then fell away from me, down the
west side of the Siula Grande.
:20:19
I got back up on the ridge
and shouted then to Joe
:20:22
that I'd found the
ridge, like that, I said,
:20:24
"I found the ridge, Joe!"
:20:28
We'd hoped to go down that day,
:20:31
but by the time it got dark,
we were still very high.
:20:34
Still at 6000m.
:20:37
And that night, as we made
a brew, the gas ran out.
:21:00
It was pretty obvious
the following morning
:21:02
that we descended the
worst part of the ridge.
:21:05
And I was pretty confident that we'd
get back down to the base camp that day.
:21:10
I thought at that stage it was pretty
much in the bag I suppose, the whole climb.
:21:16
I was ahead of Simon,
:21:20
and suddenly there was this
vertical wall, bisecting the ridge.
:21:25
I then get on my hands and knees, and
hammer both my axes into the ice at the top
:21:29
and then lower myself off the ice cliff.
:21:36
When you hammer the axe in, you listen
to the sound it makes. And you look at it.
:21:43
Now I was hanging with both axes,
right. I took the hammer out, and
:21:46
what I wanted to do is now
place it in the vertical wall.
:21:48
And I swung, and the pick
went in, and it just made a...
:21:53
just a strange sound.
:21:57
And I thought, "Well, I'll take
it out, make a good placement."