Ben Dare, 29, lowered his injured climbing companion Scott Scheele, 24, more than 200 metres down the slopes of Anidesha Chuli.%uFEFF
The pair were part of a quartet of New Zealand based climbers aiming to reach the summit of the 6,800 metre mountain in Nepal.
The group had become somewhat split up a long the way, with Mr Dare and Scheele being about a day’s climb from the summit when the younger man had his fall.
Mr Dare told the New Zealand Herald, that Scheele had been about 45 metres above him when he likely “tripped and fell”, triggering a small avalanche.
When the snow cleared, he saw Mr Scheele “dangling from his rope, upside-down, about 45m below me.”
The younger climber was apparently unconscious for a few moments, but then started to move and make noises, by which time Mr Dare was already on his way down to get him.
“I just secured the ropes, made sure that he was safe in his current position and then made my way down to him.”
Having found that apart from a gash in Scheele’s head the younger man was mostly uninjured, Ben Dare realised he had to get both of them to a place where they could both be rescued.
“Where we were, there was not much point in calling for help – it would have been very difficult or nigh on impossible even to get a helicopter in there, due to how steep the terrain was.”
So using his climbing rope, Dare lowered his companion back down the slope, one length at a time.
With daylight failing, Dare had managed to get himself and Scheele about 200 metres back down the mountain and he decided to make camp for the night.
The following day Dare continued to lower Scheele down, reaching a spot where the group had camped days before, where he was able to use his radio to reach the other men in his group, before activating an emergency beacon.
The two other men that Dare and Scheele had been climbing with, Rob Frost, 30, and Andre van Dusschoten, 37 climbed throughout the night to reach them, bringing with them the all important satellite phone.
“It was a great relief when Rob and Andre arrived – they had the satellite phone with them and it just allowed us to get much clearer lines of communication out.”
A helicopter arrived to rescue Mr Dare and his injured companion about 10.30am last Monday.
According to the NZ Herald Scott Scheele is coming on “leaps and bounds” in his recovery from the head injury he sustained in the fall, and both men hope to be back in New Zealand by the end of the week.
Despite the frightening experience, Ben Dare has said that he is keen to return to Anidesha Chuli and reach the mountain’s summit one day.
