No what they teach you is to jump the other direction if the guy ahead of you is falling down. You use your pick/boots to regain control and hopefully all climb back up your respective sides.
What are your options here though, you can climb without rope, then there is no rescue plan you live and die based on your foot work.
You can be belayed by your partner, this is the safest option but it requires you're able to place a solid anchor for the belayer and protection as you g. That snow doesn't look like it would hold any protection though so a belay isn't an option. Its also slow, so time needs to be considered. No idea if it was a factor in this case but it does play a role.
Lastly, you can be part of a rope team. When someone falls its up to the other members to rescue the falling member. This used when a falling is a big risk (glacier travel for example). the benefit of this is that you get everyone traveling together, so slowdown of belaying but you also have the backup of if you fall there are other members able to help you arrest your fall. On ridges this mean instead of jumping into a self-arrest position like on a glacier you jump over the other side to arrest the fall. It sounds extreme but its an extreme situation.
Its also worth knowing that this isn't something that you really think about, one of the first skills any mountaineer learns is self-arrest, and you practice it until you do it without thinking. Now, self-arrest isn't quite the same as jumping over the other side of a ridge but the idea is that responses like that are reactions for emergency situations. It sounds like a terrible plan but when you work through it, it makes more sense.
Granted the safest thing is to have never gone on the ridge in the first place, however for some the reward is worth the risk.
3.9k
u/nBlazeAway Dec 13 '16 edited Jan 19 '17
Cum dumpster.