:27:02
to think how I was going to
get him down the mountain.
:27:10
We discussed, between us, what
we were going to have to do.
:27:13
We thought, well, we got
2 ropes that are 50m long.
:27:16
And if we tie them together we have a
100m rope with a knot in the middle of it.
:27:21
So I tied to one end and
Simon tied to the other,
:27:24
in theory he could lower me down 100m.
:27:30
To really get anchors to
lower him from that do matter,
:27:33
what I did was cut a bucket in the
snow, sit in there and brace myself.
:27:38
And I sort of lay down between his legs.
:27:43
And Simon started lowering then.
:27:51
I'd lower him one rope length, 50m,
:27:54
and then the knot would come
up between the two ropes.
:27:57
Now the knot would not go
through the belay plates.
:28:00
So he would stop me.
:28:02
I would stand on my
left leg, my good leg,
:28:04
so that I could get
the weight off the rope.
:28:07
I gave him enough slack to
be able to unclip the rope
:28:10
thread the rope back through the lowering
device, with the knot on the other side
:28:14
clip it back to himself and
lower me the remaining 50m.
:28:25
He'd make himself reasonably secure,
and I down climbed to join him.
:28:30
And we'd repeat the process again.
:28:36
Simon was trying to lower me fast,
:28:38
and it meant that my foot kept jabbing
in and jabbing in and bending the knee.
:28:44
Excruciatingly painful.
:28:46
I can remember feeling angry with
him because he was hurting me,
:28:49
and I was thinking "do it slow",
:28:51
and I also knew that he had to do
it this fast. He hadn't got a choice.
:28:56
And he was very grim faced,
I remember looking at him,