HORRIFYING Mountain Storie

Early morning on April 1st, 1983, 28-year-old university student James and 33-year-old Richard were climbing a mountain known as Delta form along this stretch of roadway.

This 11,234-foot (3,424.12 mi) peak is the tallest in an area known as the Valley of Ten Peaks and has the quintessential sheer, jagged look of the Canadian Rockies. From their camp that morning in the valley, they tracked about two kilometers (1.24 mi) to where they would start their climb.

This area is still in the tail end of winter in early April, and so there's still significant amounts of ice and snow on the peaks. Using ice tools, they ascended up a steep ice gully between two rocky sections known as an ice couloir.

The pair also climbed roped together and set ice screws as protection on the steep ice. As Richard planted one of his tools, a chunk of ice broke off and plummeted down towards James. He yelled down to let James know, and then the two of them watched it tumbled down the mountain. But then they heard the horrifying roar of an avalanche that cut loose after the chunk of ice.

The tons of snow quickly swept the men down the couloir and 2,000 feet (609.6 m) down the mountain side. James woke up sometime later and had no idea where he was or what had happened. Unfortunately, it was clear that he was horribly injured.

His back was broken in two places, his arm was broken, his other shoulder blade was shattered, he had cracked ribs, torn ligaments in his knees, a broken nose, broken teeth, internal bleeding, and there was blood everywhere around him.

For a moment, he actually thought he was in a different mountain range that he had spent time in months earlier, but gradually, he realized where he was and what he'd been doing.

Then, he realized he'd been with Richard and he had no idea where he was or what state he was in. He painfully made his way to his feet and saw Richard nearby. Tragically, it was clear from his injuries that Richard was dead. Realizing how bad his own injuries were, James assumed he was gonna die also, and just laid down next to Richard.

At first, he was shivering as he lay there, but after some time, he started to get very warm and tired. He knew that this meant he was close to dying. Then, suddenly, he felt like someone was with him. Then, whatever it was spoke to him and told him that he couldn't give up. He had to at least try. So James got up and started making his way back to their base camp. And over the next few hours, this voice encouraged him and gave him practical advice.

Like for example, the voice told him to make arrows in the snow with his blood, so that if someone saw them, they would lead back to him. Despite barely being able to lift his legs with each step, the voice encouraged him to keep going. Some of the time, he even crawled because of how badly injured he was. But all the way back to camp, the voice was directly over his right shoulder, telling him exactly what to do. Finally, he made it back to camp and although it was only two kilometers, it had taken him almost the entire day. When he got back to camp, he couldn't even get into his sleeping bag.

He couldn't eat and he couldn't light his stove because of how badly injured he was...

TO BE COUNTINEW......