Modern crevasse rescue techniques
image: screen grab from https://youtu.be/lsTihq92IlQ
The German Mountain and Ski Guides Association (“Verband Deutscher Berg und Skiführer” or “VDBS”) has a well-deserved reputation for professionalism and technical expertise.
Petzl and Ortovox created a superb series of instructional videos featuring some top VDBS guides. They show a few crevasse rescue techniques that were new to me, and you may find them helpful also. (Side note, there are many other solid videos in this Ortovox series: lab snow, lab ice, lab rock, and first aid.)
I’ll say up front: there are many approaches to crevasse rescue. While most of them can get the job done, some are definitely more elegant, easier and faster to execute, and result in less harness clutter than others.
Old-school crevasse rescue (at least in my corner of the world in the Pacific Northwest) was centered for a long time on several principles:
Using a 3:1 “Z drag” as the main mechanical advantage system.
Always having a designated waist and leg prusik either on the rope, or at least on your harness.
Using these prusik to (usually awkwardly) transfer the load to the anchor.
Tie in to the ends of the rope.
More modern technique, shown in these videos, is a lot different:
Using a 2:1 “drop C” mechanical advantage system as the primary tool.
No one is climbing with a designated waist or leg prusik. Yes, friction hitches are used, but they’re made from an open (aka untied) cordelette when needed, and are NOT attached to the rope while you’re climbing. (Check out the diagram below: the cord is carried untied, then prussiked to the rope and tied through the belay loop only if needed.)
Load transfer to the anchor involves no prusiks; simply clip your clip in bight knot to the anchor. Simple and fast.
Climbers clip to the rope at a fairly short distance apart. The end climbers carry the extra rope coiled in the pack to use in a rescue if needed.
image: https://www.ortovox.com/uk/safety-academy-lab-ice/chapter-3/rescuing-a-companion
The drop C requires you have extra rescue rope, which should be no problem if you have a 60 meter rope and a 3 person team. Here's a whole article on how to rig your rope for a two, three, or four person team.
One simple approach for rigging with a three person team: middle person ties a bight knot in the middle of the rope and clips it to their harness. From the middle, the two end people measure out seven or eight double arm lengths of rope, tie two more bight knots, and clip ‘em to their harness. The remaining rope gets tied into butterfly coils and put into the packs of the end people.
Usually, it's best practice for glacier travel to have everyone clipped to the rope, not tied into the rope. You can use any sort of bight not you like - overhand, figure 8, or butterfly.
These methods are made a lot easier with some modern tools such as a Petzl Micro Traxion or Edelrid Spoc progress capture pulley, and a micro ascender such as a Petzl Tibloc.
Below are links to three videos. (They have a LOT of information, I’ve watched each one several times. Like most everything with climbing, these techniques are better learned from video or live demonstration than from a written description.)
Drop C 2:1 rescue
Self rescue from the victim’s perspective
The “team pull” rescue, with 3+ people on top
Video #1 - Crevasse rescue with the 2:1 “drop-C”
No pre-rigging with prusiks on the rope, so no need to bring separately tied chest prusik, leg prusik, etc. This means less gear to carry and less cluster on the rope and harness.
Instead, each climber carries about 5 meters of 5mm or 6mm cord, and uses this to tie friction hitches as needed.
After arresting the fall, the last person initially holds the load. (This assumes one of the end people has fallen in the crevasse. Rescuing the middle person is more problematic.)
The middle person uses an open (untied) cordelette to make a friction hitch between themselves and the victim. They tie an overhand knot to create a clipping point, pass one end of the cord through their harness, tie another overhand to secure themselves to the rope, then unclip from their figure 8 loop. Doing this lets them stand up and move around to make the anchor, while being secure and no longer clipped to a fixed loop of rope.
The middle person makes an anchor: a single ice axe buried in a T slot. Important, stomp down the snow between the anchor and the crevasse. No pickets needed.
Interesting way to transfer the load onto the anchor: clip the friction hitch onto the anchor, end person gives a little bit of slack, and then the tie in loop for the middle person get clipped to the anchor.
Using modern tools like a Petzl Micro Traxion progress capture pulley to make a drop C 2:1. With this method, the progress capture is on the victim, not on the anchor.
Using the drop-C as the primary raising system. An advantage to the drop C is that you can prepare the lip of the crevasse to minimize the rescue rope cutting into the snow.
With a 3 person rope team, you can probably haul your partner out of a crevasse with a 2:1. This is a LOT easier if the victim can pull down on the rope they fell in on, which generates a bit of slack. (If you can’t pull the victim up with a 2:1, it’s easy to make the drop-C into a 6:1.)
Alternative if you don’t have a traxion pulley: drop a C loop with carabiner (or pulley) to the victim, and add a progress capture prusik above.
Clever way to lower a Tibloc down the rope to set up the drop loop if your victim is unconscious, or if you’re short on rope.
Video #2 - Self-rescue for the victim
Again, no one is climbing with prusiks already attached onto the rope. In fact, they don't recommend prusiks at all. Instead, use a Tibloc or other type of micro ascender, then clip a sling to it. In the video they suggest a 90 cm sling, a bit hard to find in the United States. Use a 120 cm and tie a knot to shorten it up.
Using ascenders means you can easily pass them around any brake knots that might be on the loaded rope.
For your foot (or climbing) prusik, put a Micro Traxion on the rope below the Tibloc, then clip a long sling to this.
To get past the crevasse lip, remove the foot loop, clip the Micro Traxion on your harness, and run the tail of the rope through the Tibloc. This gives you a 3:1 mechanical advantage and you can literally haul yourself up the rope and hopefully past the lip.
Here's a more detailed article about using the Traxion and Tibloc in two different combinations to climb a rope.
Video #3 - crevasse rescue with the “team pull”
A larger team, with three or more people on top, can usually pull out a victim with simply walking backwards. It's very important when doing this to have one person monitoring the victim at the edge of the crevasse, and pulling in a coordinated and controlled manner. Do NOT pull your victim into the lip of the crevasse!
The team rescue does not have to happen just with your team. If another group is nearby, they can step up to help.
