Three of my friends tried to summit Mount Aspiring this past weekend and had a major accident. The weather shifted as they were attempting to summit and they had to back down from their ascent. On their way down, an area called the Quarter Deck (a dangerous area on the mountain) had shifted and a large crevasse had opened. They had already suffered a fall and one of my friends lost his ice axe which hampered their descent. The second fall they suffered caused the three of them to tumble down 500 meters (1,600 feet) only stopping when they hit an ice wall at the bottom. Austin broke his neck on impact and died instantly. My friend and roommate Mike broke his hip and femur, suffered head injuries, and had serious scratches down his legs. Jesse was the least injured of all with a broken collar bone and a back injury, and he made the decision to put Mike in a sleeping bag and continue the descent to find help. He somehow made his way down the Bonar Glacier by himself, injuries and all, and was able to get to a hut and alert a rescue team. In a matter of just a few hours, Mike and Austin were found and airlifted out of the glacier.
Jess and Mike are still in the hospital and will be for some time. Mike suffered such a bad leg injury that they had to amputate it at the knee. He will be here in NZ for some time to rehabilitate his sever injuries. Jess ended up having more serious injuries than they had originally thought and will be undergoing surgery in the morning. We hope to have him back in Stevens by Wednesday of next week at the earliest.
All three of the boys were mountaineers, Austin being the most experienced of them. Climbing Mount Aspiring was their dream. Sir Edmund Hilary used it as a training mountain before he attempted Everest, and so it calls to a lot of mountaineers. Everyone has said that of all the ways to leave this world, this is the way Austin would have wanted it. They are constantly in my thoughts and prayers, and I cannot wait to see their smiling faces here again.
We might drive down early next week to visit the boys in the hospital if they were feeling up to it. There will be a memorial planned for Austin once the boys have a little time to recuperate and his parents have the opportunity to talk to our campus. The halls ball for this week has been cancelled out of respect for Austin.
I love you all, thank you for all the messages and phone calls.
Life is so incredibly short…enjoy every minute of it….wherever you are and whatever you are doing, please appreciate the time you have here on this earth, and especially appreciate the people that touch your lives in any way.
My other roommate Wilson wrote this poem about climbing in memory of Austin and in tribute to the boys:
"we climb things to see
what others cannot
we risk life and limb
for beauty
for something so beautiful
that most will only dream of
the beauty is unquestionable
and the joy is unbelievable
for the fallen
we pray for you
for the fallen
we will remember you
the beauty you have seen
we can only dream of
for the fallen
we will remember you"
-RIP austin hanchey 5/7/2007
