A day at the Furka pass practicing crevasse rescue. No summit and no route — just prusiks, buried axes and hauling systems on what is left of the ice above the pass, repeated until the sequences stopped needing thought.

Furkapass, 2429 m / Glacier rescue practice

No route — dry glacier remnant and moraine / Rock: Urner granite / Gear: glacier kit (rope, prusiks, screws, axe, harness)

Crevasse rescue practice at the Furkapass Crevasse rescue practice at the Furkapass Crevasse rescue practice at the Furkapass Crevasse rescue practice at the Furkapass Crevasse rescue practice at the Furkapass Crevasse rescue practice at the Furkapass

We rigged and re-rigged: dropping a loaded rope into a slot, holding the fall, building a deadman with an axe, then hauling with a 3:1 and a 6:1 until the transitions stopped being fiddly. Ascending the rope on prusiks is the part most people practise least and need most, so we did that several times each.

Worth noting how little ice is left up here. What used to be a working glacier is now bare grey ice and moraine, and finding a slot to drill on took longer than the drills themselves. Good weather, big granite above us, and a skill set that is only useful if you never have to use it.

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