… The dogs had been dangling for over an hour …
This is from The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard (1922; 1965):
… We started on the evening of 20 February in a very bad light. It was coldish, with no wind.
… We ran level for another two miles, Meares and Scott on our left. We were evidently crossing many crevasses. Quite suddenly we saw the dogs of our team disappearing, following on another, just like dogs going down a hole after some animal.
‘In a moment,’ wrote Scott:
“the whole team were sinking — two by two we lost sight of them, each pair struggling for foothold. Osman the leader exerted all his strength and kept a foothold — it was wonderful to see him. The sledge stopped and we leapt aside. The situation was clear in another moment.
[line break added] We had been actually travelling along the bridge [or snow covering] of a crevasse, the sledge had stopped on it, whilst the dogs hung in their harness in the abyss, suspended between the sledge and the leading dog. Why the sledge and ourselves didn’t follow the dogs we shall never know.”
We of the other sledge stopped hurriedly, tethered our team and went to their assistance with the Alpine rope. Osman, the big leader, was in great difficulties. He crouched resisting with all his enormous strength the pull of the rope upon which the team hung in their harness in mid air. It was clear that if Osman gave way, the sledge and dogs would probably all be lost down the crevasse.
First we pulled the sledge off the crevasse, and drove the tethering peg and driving stick through the cross pieces to hold it firm. Scott and Meares then tried to pull up the rope from Osman’s end, while we hung on to the sledge to prevent it slipping down the crevasse. They could not move it an inch. We then put the strain as much as possible on to a peg. Meanwhile two dogs had fallen out of their harness into the crevasse and could be seen lying on a snow-ledge some 65 feet down.
[After great difficulty, they pulled the team up dogs up, two by two.]
… The dogs had been dangling for over an hour, and some of them showed signs of internal injuries. Meanwhile the two remaining dogs were lying down the crevasse on a snow-ledge. Scott proposed going down on the Alpine rope to get them; all his instincts of kindness were aroused, as well as the thought of the loss of two of the team.
[line break added] Wilson thought it was a mad idea and very dangerous, and said so, asking however whether he might not go down instead of Scott if anybody had to go. Scott insisted, and we paid down the 90-foot Alpine rope to test the distance. The ledge was about 65 feet below. We lowered Scott, who stood on the ledge while we hauled up the two dogs in turn. They were glad to see him, and little wonder!
But the rescued dogs which were necessarily running about loose on the Barrier, in their mangled harnesses, chose this moment to start a free fight with the other team. With a hurried shout down the crevasse we had to rush off to separate them.
My most recent previous post from Cherry-Garrard’s book is here.
-Julie
Coloring 