How Jamie´s bottom had a scrape with death.....
Five nights ago at Campo base (4250m) where we are working in the Andes there was this shit kicking, rip snorting wind at 3 in the morning (150km/hr I reckon) which picked one of the enormous, aluminium framed tents up and sent it rolling like tumbleweed over the edge of the cliff the camp is perched on. I had just moved the last of our stuff out of the tent we were sleeping in to another further back up the slope and was crab crawling to the new tent when I saw the Comedor tent loosen and flip towards me - it scraped past Jamies bum which was sticking out of the tent - don´t know how it missed that enormous obstruction ...hahahaha ....and I had to try and do a karate type dive roll to avoid the tent as it swept past me (actually ended up banging my knee on a big rock that was in the way and being draped over the same rock at the same time - didn´t get to the end of the roll - sort of ended with the rock).
The big tent mashed the tent we had been sleeping in, mashed 4 other tents, took one more tent and a 15kg backpack with it as it disappeared over the cliff like an enormous soccerball kicked at goal. We had a very lucky escape. The other tents were, thank god empty, because the army guys who they belonged to were attempting to climb a 6000m mountain that night (mental if you ask me with 150km winds). Jamie lost his glasses - first thing to go when he stuck his head out of the tent, but amazingly we saved everything else.
Earlier in the night before common sense prevailed I´d tried to hold down the same big tent with two army guys who were sheltering in it because their tent had blown away. We´d moved everything we could from the kitchen tent - the one closest to the cliff edge, when it looked like that one would go (especially the big 40L gas bottles - I was wetting my pants about these because if they were punctured they could explode and it could get very nasty, very quickly). Jamie moved all of our gear out of the kitchen tent too and then damn it all the three of us were standing in the Comedor (the 2 army guys and me) while Jamie put his contact lenses in (no glasses you see) in our sleeping tent when the canvas in the Comedor in 2 seconds ripped off half the leftside of the tent and the aluminium framework started to lift off the ground. We were inside and it looked like we wouldn´t be able to get out (the tent was made up of triangles that you could probably only dive through and the doors were facing the wrong direction to get out) so we held the framework down as best we could screaming ´help´ in english and spanish. I was really afeared for Jamie because his tent was right in the way of the Comedor if it went. He finally turned up half contact lensed, the wind dropped a bit and we all bailed. I´ve never been so hyped and scared in my life, but it really felt like we didn´t panic (there were a few tense arguments about trying to save gear, but that was it really).
We spent the rest of the night huddling in the half broken tent we had chucked all our gear in, eating alfajores (rich chocolate biscuits, good for moments of stress). Jamie drank beer with an American guy called Brandon who helped us out heaps in the night and I just tried to stay warm wrapped up in several blankets. It took 2 days to clean up the mess and afterwards we walked down to the refuge at 3000m, worked 2 more days nd now we are in Mendoza and I´m feeling better, but hot. Its funny what life throws at you eh (hahaaha ...literally). I´m just so glad nothing bad happened.
The clean up crew - mules are amazing animals
Heading for the track down - 2000m vertically down to the refuge
This is a new route that Jamie climbed with Brandon on the slabs on the eastern side of San Bernado - a peak about 1/2 an hrs walk uphill from the refuge:
The big tent mashed the tent we had been sleeping in, mashed 4 other tents, took one more tent and a 15kg backpack with it as it disappeared over the cliff like an enormous soccerball kicked at goal. We had a very lucky escape. The other tents were, thank god empty, because the army guys who they belonged to were attempting to climb a 6000m mountain that night (mental if you ask me with 150km winds). Jamie lost his glasses - first thing to go when he stuck his head out of the tent, but amazingly we saved everything else.
Earlier in the night before common sense prevailed I´d tried to hold down the same big tent with two army guys who were sheltering in it because their tent had blown away. We´d moved everything we could from the kitchen tent - the one closest to the cliff edge, when it looked like that one would go (especially the big 40L gas bottles - I was wetting my pants about these because if they were punctured they could explode and it could get very nasty, very quickly). Jamie moved all of our gear out of the kitchen tent too and then damn it all the three of us were standing in the Comedor (the 2 army guys and me) while Jamie put his contact lenses in (no glasses you see) in our sleeping tent when the canvas in the Comedor in 2 seconds ripped off half the leftside of the tent and the aluminium framework started to lift off the ground. We were inside and it looked like we wouldn´t be able to get out (the tent was made up of triangles that you could probably only dive through and the doors were facing the wrong direction to get out) so we held the framework down as best we could screaming ´help´ in english and spanish. I was really afeared for Jamie because his tent was right in the way of the Comedor if it went. He finally turned up half contact lensed, the wind dropped a bit and we all bailed. I´ve never been so hyped and scared in my life, but it really felt like we didn´t panic (there were a few tense arguments about trying to save gear, but that was it really).
We spent the rest of the night huddling in the half broken tent we had chucked all our gear in, eating alfajores (rich chocolate biscuits, good for moments of stress). Jamie drank beer with an American guy called Brandon who helped us out heaps in the night and I just tried to stay warm wrapped up in several blankets. It took 2 days to clean up the mess and afterwards we walked down to the refuge at 3000m, worked 2 more days nd now we are in Mendoza and I´m feeling better, but hot. Its funny what life throws at you eh (hahaaha ...literally). I´m just so glad nothing bad happened.
What the Kitchen tent looked like before....
Jamie cooking our evening meal
Sunrise through the tent
Flattened tents everywhere
The Comedor - about 100m down below
A body tangled in the wreakage .... seriously not really :)
Pizza... mmmm more comfort food
Where the Comedor used to be...
The clean up crew - mules are amazing animalsHeading for the track down - 2000m vertically down to the refuge
Jamie´s response to a near death experience - Go climbing !!!! (its actually Brandon in the photo)
This is a new route that Jamie climbed with Brandon on the slabs on the eastern side of San Bernado - a peak about 1/2 an hrs walk uphill from the refuge:
posted by Jamie and Katie at 6:34 pm
1 Comments:
oh my goodness that was close, so glad your ok. Deb Smit
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