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Climber hit by Lightning - Pierces Pass 6-Jan-2011 At 10:16:49 AM jezlevett

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On 6/01/2011 mikllaw wrote:
>On 5/01/2011 Jezlevett wrote:
>>1. Awesome retreat abseil from pitch 6 very exposed and amazing with
>the
>> lighting around.
>
> --Did you rap straight from the belay to the halfway ledge (and how
>long were your ropes?), or traverse 12m left to the new rap anchors and
>rap from there?
>
>> I don’t know if they had a guide book im
>>not sure.
> --They have a number of copies and had grid references also
>
>> I thank them for their efforts as it is an epic walk in from
>>the base jumpers track at night.
> --Bad enough in the daylight.
>

Hey Mike.

I didnt ask the rescuers at the time that they were going off the guide book but for future rescues its nice to know that they did and they also had grid reference.

The walk was pretty brutal on the way out. One of the rescuers hurt his knee near the end, theres heaps of loose rock and soil alot of it gives way. I still cant believe how they did it in the dark.

We rapped from the belay points (2 ring bolts) for the start of pitch 7/end of pitch 6. I did not know about the new rap anchors 12m to the left. I rapped first clipping the rope into pitch 6 as i went down. i then saw that our 60m ropes reached the half way ledge(end of pitch 4/start of pitch 5) with a few metres to spare. My mate unclipped and i connected him to the anchor on the end of pitch 4.

Also on another note: There for some reason was some confusion on what was said over the phone around 6-8pm after the rap from pitch 6. I still dont really understand exactly but some one we called thought my mate could go into shock from the lightning and we were stuck on pitch 4 (although this was not the case). This is what the rescuers told me they thought when they arrived, so i assume chinese whispers may have been responsible.