I just had my first and hopefully last massive ice climbing fall at an ice climbing trip to Hemsedal in Norway. And that was a scary experience!

In this short ice climbing video I will show you what happened and talk you through the ice climbing fall, and in the end also talk a bit about how I see such an ice climbing fall could have been avoided in the first place.

And I will also explain why falling on ice is dangerous and in any means should be avoided!

We were ice climbing a single pitch WI5 at Golsjuvet in Hemsedal where we had to top out above a small overhang and bridge a hanging pillar. The finishing move on the ice climbing route was to basically to pull yourself over an overhang after the ice axes had been buried deep in the snow and frozen turf.

If you are asking yourself why there are a couple of Petzl Nomics sitting at the top of the route, then my climbing partner had just taken a similar ice climbing whipper, so I promised to retrieve his ice axes. But after my fall my ice axes were stuck too! Fortunately for us we could walk out of the gorge at Golsjuvet and retrieve our ice axes by abseiling down the route from the top.

I gained a few learnings from my ice climbing fall and there are a series of things I could have done differently to prevent myself from falling. First of all, if I couldn’t find a decent rest, then I should just have rested in the last ice screw, or clipped one of my ice axes and then rested where I were. Secondly, I was so close to topping out at the tree that I could probably just have hooked the tree with one of my ice axes or grabbed it with my hands. I must admit though that it seemed a bit sketchy to do in the situation. And pulling in trees is something I generally try to avoid because their roots could be rotten, and not hold my pull! Because then you can easily make an ice climbing fall.

I was happy that I did not climb with leashes that day as my ice axes would have ricochet against me, when the strings pulled tight by the fall. And that could inflict serious injury!

And falling on ice is something you should by any means try to avoid! Even though ice climbing falls happen, fortunately they happen rarely – but the stakes are much higher! You have sharp pointy crampons on, ice axes in your hands and the ice might not hold if it not solid enough – and you might even break off ice that could hit you or your belayer. And most ice climbing happens in remote places, so you might have to be rescued out.

I guess I got a bit too eager finishing the route, and what I learned is that I should take resting very seriously when climbing steep ice. So for those reasons I could have a avoided this ice climbing whipper.

So, have you been in a similar situation taking a fall of ice – and what did you learn you your ice climbing whipper? Leave a comment below.

► How to ice climb Sabotørfossen in Rjukan: [ Ссылка ]

Or

► How to ice climb La Spada di Damocle: [ Ссылка ]

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By The Croft by Joakim Karud
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Moon by Lemmino
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#IceClimbing #IceClimbingFall #Norway

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