daniel webber, THE CREVASSE (LANDSCAPE 2025)

The early morning sun warms my team of three as we cross over to the glacier before we begin our ascent of Mount Victoria in the Rockies. A day that would become striking and dramatic not only for the views and the experience but a sudden rescue we would find ourselves in. After traversing this glacier full of a winding maze of dangerous crevasse we slow found our way up the side of the mountain before, over numerous hours, we made a successful summit. With the euphoria of the achievement high we looked down at the return journey, only to see a solo climber fall over on the same glacier we had come up and watched him slid bodily down the steep slope before finally he disappeared into a black tear in the ice; He had fallen into crevasse hundreds meters below us. We would find out this bearded Ukrainian had fallen 30 meters before he was caught on a snow bridge, was without any gear and no one else knew he was climbing that day. We called in emergency services and then set about getting to him. I distinctly remember being fearful this man could not have survived such a fall. Unsure if we would even find “his” crevasse, we down climbed until we got to the glacier and to our luck were able follow the path his body carved in the ice before it disappeared into the dark pit. We called out and to our joy - he called back! We began about trying to rescue him. Setting up a T-abseil, with our ice axe buried in the snow; two of us hanging on one side of it for weight and our team leader hanging fro the other, he abseiled down to the man. After this first contact a helicopter and a few men from Canada Parks came to our aid and together over four hours we were able to haul the man bodily from what promised to be his ice tomb. Standing on the lip of the hole the man stood like a punch drunk boxer bloodied and dizzy, he gave myself and one other a big hug saying, “I really fucked up today.” He was Hypothermic and sorry for himself but he would survive. He was placed in a warm stretcher and promptly flown away. With two hours of risky glacier climbing to go, another twelve kilometres of hiking left and the temperature dropping sharply with the setting of sun our own effort getting off the mountain was beginning to look hazardous. Much to our relief we were offered a helicopter lift - however rather than climbing safely into the chopper, I was clipped with my small 5mm safety line (tied together at 4am that morning) to a hook hanging thirty meters below the helicopter. Before we knew what was happening were lifting from the ice and in seconds were hundreds of meters in the air. Terrified my knot would fail I hung from the hook until I realised the majesty below me, the sun had begin to set and we soared through the rockies; light glinted off the peaks, the glaciers passed far below - it was truely one of the most breath taking experiences of my life. This image was the start to such a day.

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