Attending the Association of Mountaineering Instructors
(AMI) AGM has become somewhat of a regular thing for me. This year’s at Glenmore Lodge was fantastic,
with great workshops and guest speakers and perfectly timed. I had my Mountaineering Instructor
Certificate (MIC) assessment planned for mid February (2017) but felt I needed
a couple of workshops to help fine tune my skills. Following a fantastic day with Bill Strachan
the day before doing ‘stance management’ I was really pleased that I was going
to be out with him again for a MIC ‘shakedown’ on the Sunday. Along with myself were Ali, David and Bryan.
The day started normal enough with no hint as to how it was
going to end! Walking in to the Northern Corries, a popular spot for many
winter climbers, it was evident that the heavy snows that had fallen the
previous two days were now melting at a rapid pace and turning the paths into
‘slushpuppy’ tracks. The five of us persevered
into Coire an t’Sneachda getting wetter and wetter, not really sure if it was
from the outside in or the inside out due to the ‘warm’ temperatures and
sweating. For those who have not
experienced these types of days in the mountains you can get colder more easily
than when the temperatures are well below freezing but with no wind. Following
a bit of this and a bit of that relating to the MIC scheme and a few pearls of
wisdom from Bill, we had all had enough and we were all reaching for our extra
jackets to try and fend off the onset of hypothermia.
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| Climbing the day before during the Stance Management Workshop |
Walking out, we wasted no time getting to a spot to put away
a few things such as harness and helmet we were still wearing. Packing my rucksack the boys headed off and I
told them I was going to have a pee and would catch them up. By the time I’d finished the boys were about
200m in front of me so I put a bit of a ‘jog’ on to make up the distance and
try and catch them. I remember being
only about 50m away when suddenly my left leg slipped on a slushy part of the
path and I was aware that I was going down.
However, as my body went forward with the momentum my right foot caught
on a rock and I felt it turn under. This
was one of those situations which had happened numerous times before during my
career as a Mountaineering Instructor, but immediately I knew this one was
different. Normally I would have reacted
fast enough to un-tuck my foot from under me, as had happened before, but the
slush on the path, my speed and my body weight meant that this didn’t
happen. My foot turned back on itself
and I came crashing down on it until I found myself sat on it facing a rather
strange direction. The pain, although
severe was strange, more akin to a severe ‘Chinese burn’ than anything more
severe. Instinctively, I managed to right myself and found myself sitting
straight legged looking at the lads walking away from me, they hadn’t seen me
fall. As my right foot flopped over to the side I thought that’s broken but
having never broken any bone in my body in my longish career outdoors I had
nothing to compare it to. I shouted to the guys but to my dismay no one
heard me, so I shouted louder until Ali turned around and saw me sitting
there. As I waited for the guys to come
back to me I knew I had hurt myself badly and immediately I knew my winter and my
MIC was over for this year. What I didn’t know was that this was just the start
of some very strange events that would unfold as the evening went on.
A decision was made that a stretcher was going to be sent up
from Glenmore Lodge but that realistically it was going to be nearly an hour
before it would reach me. I wanted to
keep warm and I suppose I was a little in denial about how serious I had hurt
myself, so started to hobble and hop my way down to meet the stretcher coming
the other way. Two of the guys were
always at my side taking my weight (sorry about that guys but very much
appreciated!), and also me using a ski pole.
Together we managed around 350m before the stretcher arrived with my
other new hero John Armstrong (his sense of humour is also questionable!), Rob
and Alex. People have asked if I was in
a lot of pain during the whole of the descent and I can honestly say I was
definitely uncomfortable but I was never in so much pain that I had to
stop. It was actually four hours later I
took my first paracetamol and more because I thought I should rather than
needing it. I would like to formally
thank all those above for being so professional and dedicated to getting me off
the hill quickly and easily….could not have thought of a better rescue team.
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| Ali (left) and Dave (right) Supporting me on my 350m hobble/hop (Photo Bill Strachan) |
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| The guys doing a great job with the fancy 'in-line wheel stretcher' (photo John Armstrong) |
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| Me putting on a brave face for John (photo John Armstrong |
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| Me finally in the mini bus on the way down to Glenmore Lodge (Photo Bill Strachan) |
Arriving back at the Lodge my mind was buzzing with all the
decisions I had to make and how I was going to achieve them; X-rays, transport, home, MIC, Mentoring… Fortunately, Peter Stollery, who lives close
to me in Teesside (Darlington) and had attended the AGM at the weekend also, helped
make some of the decisions a lot easier.
Pete volunteered to drive my van back down the road but having left his
at Penrith we would have to drive there. So all I had to do was make
arrangements to have my wife and son meet us at Penrith and all would be well. This seemed my best option as I would be van
bound at Glenmore Lodge if I stayed. I
thanked everyone I could who had helped, had a bandage (equine wrap) applied to
my leg (great job Will Kilner thanks), collected various bits of kit which were
located in various places around the Lodge, loaded the van and set off on the 5
hour journey to Penrith. The time was 17:00 hours!
The drive down the road went without incident, albeit a
miserable evening with dark skies, fog and water on the road. Pete was feeling tired due to an over
indulgence the night before (usual AMI AGM behaviour apparently) but was doing
a great job with the driving. On the way
Pete made a suggestion that, to save me extending my journey and him having to
drive from Penrith back to Darlington (about 1 hour journey) would it be
possible that my wife drives his van back from Penrith and he would take me
directly to Accident and Emergency in Teesside?
The only thing was that my wife would have to collect his spare key for
his van from his girlfriend in Darlington.
This was not much out of the way for my wife as it was on the way to
Penrith anyways. Arrangements were made
and all seemed fine. We stopped at a
well known fast food restaurant in Berwick where, I took my first pain killers
of the day, and continued down the A1 towards home. The time was 20:30 hours.
Suddenly and completely out of the blue the van started to
make a strange noise, Pete and me looked at each other ‘what the f**# is that’
we said almost in unison. Pete pulled over at the nearby lay by/parking area
and got out and looked around the van.
‘It’s a blow out’ Pete said! The near side rear tyre was completely flat
and needed changing, so Pete set about releasing the spare wheel. This proved more awkward than anticipated, me
hobbling around on one foot not really being able to offer any physical help
and now in a little bit of pain. The spare
wheel carrier was being awkward and Pete tried various methods to release
it. Finally, the carrier released,
unfortunately, Pete had left his finger underneath it….with a silent scream and
the look on his face I could tell it must have hurt. We found out later after a visit to A & E
himself, that the finger wasn’t broken but had to be drilled through the nail
bed to release the pressure underneath (yuk!!!). Although the spare wheel was released it was
stuck under the van and Pete needed to put the jack in place to raise the van
up so we (me) could pull it out. Finally
with the spare wheel out, the flat tyre off we (Pete) tried to line up the bolt
stud holes, unfortunately, as Pete adjusted the new wheel the van moved and
slipped off its jack. Disaster you might
think, as the van fell towards me and Pete…No miracle!!! The spare wheel lodged itself under the wheel
arch and stopped the van hitting the slippery tarmac we were parked on. Quickly Pete replaced the jack and raised the
van…Forgetting about my foot we both struggled to get the wheel in place before
Pete eventually lined up the holes and screwed in the bolts/studs…Phew! The
time was 22:00 hours.
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| Not broken but drilled and drained (photo Pete Stollery) |
I jumped in the passenger seat and turned on the ignition
while Pete cleaned his hands. The van
made a strange scream and whirring noise which eventually settled. Pete jumped back into the drivers seat and for
the second time that evening we said in unison “What the F**# was that?” Pete
pulled out from the lay by and almost immediately we both noticed the lights on
the van dash… Pete then said “Cliff I have no power steering!”. What the hell was going on this evening was
beyond both Pete and myself…It kind of reminded me of the film Final
Destination, where those who had cheated death were chased until the inevitable
happened…DEATH! Pete pulled over again
and said he just wanted to check he could actually steer…It was his call, if he
could drive without the power steering I was happy for him to continue. We continued down the A1 and took the slip
road for the A19 and the Tyne Tunnel…wishing this night would end (not in a
Final Destination way though!). During
this drive we received a call from my wife who said they had located Petes van in
Penrith but could we confirm the make/model and registration number as they
were having difficulty getting the key to work…
After a few expletives from Pete he realised that his girlfriend (soon
to be wife) had given my wife the wrong spare key. Lynne my wife and Aaron my Son were now stuck
in Penrith. Pete made the ‘calm’ phone call
to his fiancée and explained the situation and that she would have to take the
actual key over to Penrith to meet Lynne and Aaron. What made this worse is Lynne had told us how
bad the weather was going over the Pennines and that fog was getting thicker. I felt I needed to talk to Pete’s Fiancée and
tell her not to rush and to take care, all the while thinking about Final
Destination! All seemed well for Pete
and myself now until just beyond Sunderland when in the middle of the dual
carriage way with the rain coming down, all electrics to the van ceased to
work. We couldn’t even drop the windows
to see out. Somehow Pete managed to drive
off the A19 and into a pub car park and safety.
Surely this was the end of the ‘events’?
We waited only around half an hour for the AA man and his
van to arrive (impressive), perhaps things were looking up! Only to have the
barmaid from the pub meet him on the way to check my van out, “Will you guys be
long? It’s just I need to lock the gate
of the car park” said the barmaid. No way!
Hahahaha we were almost hysterical by this point….Pete tried to reason
with her, but to no avail. He is obviously
not experienced with females from Sunderland! The lads pushed the van out of
the car park and onto the road while I steered and broke with my wrong foot
(for the brake). “Nothing I can do mate it’s
the alternator belt and you’re going to need to be transported” Said the AA
man. He made arrangements for another
transport company to come and pick us up.
The time was now 12:40 hours.
Following the detour to Hartlepool, where my preferred
garage repair is located, we were dropped at my house in Billingham by the nice
transport guy. Pete quickly jumped in
his van which Lynne had brought to our house and set off home. I jumped into my wife’s car, not even a cup
of tea was offered, and driven to Accident and Emergency at Stockton. The time was now 2:30/3:00 hours.
We were seen quite quickly only to find out that the waiting
time to see the doctor was three and half hours, however, there was an
alternative to go to the One Life Walk in Centre in Hartlepool where I could be
seen immediately for x-ray and analysis.
There was no option but to drive to the Centre, yes you guessed it, past
my van that we had left outside of the Garage over an hour earlier. The senior nurse arranged for an immediate
x-ray as promised and which confirmed my fears that my leg was broken. I had done quite a good job on it and had
actually broken my tibia and fibula near the ankle area. By this time the swelling had become worse
but the bandage applied at Glenmore Lodge by Will had done a great job (invest
in some equine wraps people). They put
me in a temporary cast and made an appointment for the following day to see the
specialist/consultant. We eventually
settled into bed for 05:30 hours!
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| Fibula fractures |
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| Tibia Fracture |
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| Following the removal of my initial cast |
All there is to say is a massive thanks to all those people
involved and who had put themselves out for me during the day. It’s amazing and humbling the support that I
got and has continued through social media since. Thank You for that!
All the best to everyone attempting to complete their MIC
this ‘winter’!
AMI 💗
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| The foreseeable future! |
