:49:06
Very quickly, the ground
dropped away steeply.
:49:08
So I skirted around this
area of steeper ground.
:49:19
As I abseiled down, I could
see this overhanging ice cliff,
:49:22
which was what I had lowered him over,
:49:25
so I knew that he'd had
actually been hanging in space,
:49:27
which is the reason he couldn't
get his weight off the rope.
:49:33
And as I went down lower,
I could see to my horror,
:49:36
that the base of this ice cliff
was an absolutely enormous crevice,
:49:42
that's 12m wide and just bottomless
from where I was looking at it.
:49:53
SIMON!
:49:56
He would have been up with
first light, I thought.
:49:57
'Cause I was desperately,
desperately thirsty.
:50:00
And he would have been. And he would
have wanted to get down, and get water.
:50:05
And he would have wanted to find me.
:50:07
Now I did stop and pause, and I
shouted across into the crevice,
:50:11
and I yelled and yelled, "Joe, Joe".
:50:15
And I suppose again, with
the benefit of hindsight,
:50:19
after I got off the rope, I
should have gone and looked,
:50:23
into the crevice, to see where he was.
:50:26
But to be quite honest, the thought
didn't occur to me at that time.
:50:33
I was just convinced he was dead.
:50:43
Absolutely convinced, by 10, totally
convinced, that I was on my own.
:50:49
That no one was coming to get me.
:50:57
I was brought up as a devout Catholic.