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Published: August 5th 2007
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Bec
I'm still pretty impressed All right well after 2 wonderful weeks at Valle Nevado and Portillo(where most of the photos on this update are from) Bec and I went to a place called Termas de Chillan. It is a mountain in the south of Chile and is supposed to be a hided jewel of a ski resort. As we found out, it didn't like us much. On top of a number of other things that happened to us while we where there, such as my favorite board getting ruined on a hidden rock or my camera melting cause I forgot it in the pocket of my jacket left to dry next to the fire, Rebecca had a brush with death. I have told this story many times, about 40 times alone to Rebecca when she had amnesia. And some of you have already heard it. But here it goes.
After getting off the longest lift in South America (not sure if it is longest for distance or because it takes 25 minutes) Rebecca and I decided to try the far skiers left side of the mountain. The run happened to be awesome, fresh tracks for the first half. That was until we had to
View from below
Hard to see but the ice waterfall in the middle is where she fell. start traversing to get back to the lifts. Before we had arrived the mountain had received some rain following by cold weather, so there was a substantial amount of ice in parts. Which made it hard to traverse. While traversing Rebecca took the low route and I took the high route. Both of us following tracks that had been there before. Well since there was so much ice, Rebecca's line became a dead-end and we ended up having a ridge between us. We were unable to see each other, but could shout to each other. She told me she was stuck on ice, and I could sense the fear in her voice. So I tried to get back to her. But because of the ice, couldn't get over the ridge. I continued to try, sliding down the ridge to see if I could find a gap in the ice. I slid almost the entire way down until I found myself stuck on ice, in which I ended up slipping down and falling off a substantial cliff into snow(luckily!). Now I was too far down the mountain to see Bec or to shout to her so I had to go back
The result from falling into a crevasse
Check out the smile on her face...I think it was the drugs! to the lift to try and get back up to her. Because the lift took so damn long, I ended up taking the halfway point because my nerves where getting to me. I then traversed near where Rebecca had been and I shouted for her, but no reply. So I continued to slip down the mountain shouting her name. Until I was near the bottom on the gully and she finally heard me. When she replied "I've fallen into a crevasse" with the fear of her life in her voice. I couldn't see her I could only hear her. So I rush down the mountain to get the ski patrol. Busted in the ski school yelling my friend had fallen in a hole. Luckily there was a ski instructor that could speak good English and he translated to the ski patrol where Rebecca was. The ski patrol did a great job and found her in 15 minutes and had her down the mountain in 20. I watched them as they brought her down the gully in the 2-man toboggan. It took 5 of them in total to get her down. They got her into the medical room, got her wet
clothes off of her and strapped her to a spine board. Then stuck her in an ambulance and we rushed down to the nearest hospital, 40 miles away. The whole time Bec was in complete shock and had no memory what so ever. She would ask me what happened, I would tell her, she would cry from fear and disbelief and then a couple moments would pass and then she would ask me again what happened. The cycle went on for a while. Once we got to the hospital they did a cat scan of her head and neck and x-rayed almost her entire body. Everything checked out OK! They keep her over night for observation. And in the end all she had was a little hypothermia, a bad concussion and a bum knee. When I asked the ski patrol what they saw when they found her, they told me that they could see her tracks from where she fell and they guessed that with the distance she feel into the crevasse that she fell about 20 meters, 60 some feet! They told me that she is very lucky to be alive. Since, Rebecca has gained all of her memory
back except for the incident. Which is probably a good thing. All and all, it was a very traumatizing and very lucky experience. I have learned a lot from the incident and can laugh about it now. We got out of Termas de Chillan as soon as we could. This entry has gotten pretty long, but there were some other incidents that made us sure that Termas de Chillan is the gateway to hell. We were very happy to leave there with our lives. The end
Other then that, I have included some videos and photos from the fun part of our trip. I hope this finds everyone well. Miss you all.
-ian
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anonymous
non-member comment
Fing boca de hell. You did an awesome job putting together the sequence photos....looks like a snow mag.....oh yeah, and great job saving my life too...