: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."
:22:00
So I just wanted to put bona... dead
solid axe placements in. All the way down.
:22:06
And I was about to
swing at the ice again
:22:27
The pain is... came
flooding down my thigh
:22:30
and my knee was very, very very painful
:22:38
The impact drove my lower leg
straight through my knee joint.
:22:45
As the bone went into my tibia it
split the tibial plateau straight off
:22:52
and carried on up.