Yep, as I mentioned in my previous post, stopping the fall is only half the battle and then you have to build an anchor and get your teammate out of the hole, by yourself, without being able to communicate directly with them (at least most of the time). Maybe your partner will get lucky and just punch through the surface but not fall into the crevasse and can just pull themselves out without much help, but maybe they’ll take a 40 foot whipper, injure themselves, and pull you to the edge of the crevasse leaving you with little to work with, you never know.AndrewLyonsGeibel wrote:My partner and I did practice which is why I posted. I feel like I’m relatively strong but there is no way that I could arrest a fall with a person and close to 100 lbs of gear. We are both pretty confident about setting up a haul system but both nervous about stopping the fall and building an anchor.
While the climber in the hole can certainly do some things to help their teammate(s), such as tieing off to the side of the crevasse to relieve tension on the rope, or work on setting up a prusik/ascender system, being able to quickly and easily set up a pulley system to haul is the fastest and most efficient way to get someone out of a crevasse. At least with a three-four person team, one to two people can set up a haul system, check on/communicate with the climber, etc. while the other(s) hold the fall. This makes for a much easier and faster rescue than if you have to do it alone.
Monster5 has provided some good advice on the precautions to take when traveling on glaciers as a pair (leaving significant distance and tying knots in the rope between climbers, belaying across snow bridges, setting up anchors when necessary, etc.), but also has significant glacier experience in Alaska, the Andes, and elsewhere. So if you’re new to this (as it sounds like you are), I would suggest starting with a bigger team until you are comfortable with you and your partner’s abilities to glacier travel, then look at going as a pair. Statistically speaking crevasse falls are rare, but like anything else in mountaineering it’s often best to expect the best but prepare for the worst.
My two cents,
Kai