Ouch

Yesterday Gaz and I headed to Steall Falls quite early and were lucky enough to be first on the route. It was amazing quality ice with constant first time placements and just a joy to climb. Heading off on the first pitch

3rd pitch

Gaz looks happy at the point we decided to ab off

Next up was to meet Dave for a look at some interesting ice formations I had saw the week previous while trying to get my "4x4" out of the Glen. We headed straight to them and everyone was immediately psyched. I decided to try a new and continental looking route.

I climbed a thin cigar of ice then up into the cave above and placed gear in suspect rock. The ice was melting fast by now and water was visible behind the thin smear I had to climb and I was very wary of taking a whipper onto suspect rock while attached to about a tonne of ice, time to lower off.

It was about 2 feet above where this pic is taken when things went wrong

As I leaned back onto the rope my gear ripped from the rock and I went into freefall, about 15ft then tumbling down a hill. Thankfully I only had extreme pain in my ankle and badly winded, no prosthetic buried in my torso. Trying hard to breathe and not pass out was difficult. The lads sprung into action and got me out of there very quickly, Dave carried me and Gaz carried the 3 packs. I owe those boys.

It's amazing how much can go through your mind in a very short space of time, I remember vividly pushing myself away from the ice to make sure my spine and neck didn't take the impact or someone else would likely be writing this. So it's a badly sprained ankle and forced rest for me. I do however consider myself very lucky to still be able to walk, albeit with crutches.........