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Date of Incident

07/04/2018

Country

Scotland

Activity

Winter walking

When

Ascending

Injury

Serious injury requiring medical treatment

Incident

As keen winter mountain walkers/climbers, my friend and I were making our way across a snowy, ice covered CMD arete when all of a sudden part of the way across the arete, some ice gave away under my footing. I slipped down onto my side and onto my back then immediately started to slide down the arete towards the CIC hut. I got myself into a self arrest position fairly quickly, however, due to my speed and how steep the arete is, my axe just cut through the snow and ice. I thought I wasn't going to stop even though my arest fast and perfect text book. I then started to hit a few exposed rock bouncing off with force until eventually my axe snagged on to some of this exposed rock bringing me to a jolting stop. I'd gone down 25m 83ft before coming to an abrupt stop.
I felt bruising where I'd hit my left hip on some rock but otherwise felt ok. After getting my breath I started to climb back up to the ridge where I had left my friend. From there we continued to the summit of Ben Nevis but my left leg and hip started to feel sore and was really slowing me down. Once we were at Ben Nevis summit, I took some pain-relief and anti-inflammatories before setting off on our descent.

Once I got to my accommodation I had a proper look at my injured hip to find a huge hematoma on my left hip/thigh and thought I must be the luckiest girl alive to just have that. Until... A couple of weeks later my shoulder and neck started to give me so much pain. Even now, a year later I still get lots of pain in my neck and shoulder as well as some numbness in some of my fingers. I may now be possibly be looking at needing surgery and now wished I'd got myself checked out immediately and properly.

Lessons

After any incident where you get injured, it pays to get yourself checked out properly no matter how big or small.

Causes

Slip, trip or fall, Adverse Weather, Falling rock, snow, ice or object

Anonymous?

No

Reported By

Participant

Wearing Helmets?

Rescue Services Involved?

My left thigh hematoma sitting next to my dragon tattoo.

Author

Jodie.

12 May 2019 at 21:10:43

For more advice and guidance on good practices visit BMC skills

All reports are self-submitted and have not been edited by the BMC in any way, so please keep an open mind regarding the lessons and causes of each incident or near-miss. 

If you have a concern regarding this report please contact us at incidentreports@thebmc.co.uk

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