Conan Harrod never made it to the top of Mount Everest, but he could make the record books as the first climber to crawl down the face of the world's highest peak.
The 34-year-old British com puter expert returned recently to tell the remarkable story of how he inched his way down the moun tain on his hands and knees for two days after breaking his left leg just 250 metres short of the summit.
The accident happened on May 21, just below 8,600 metres, as Mr. Harrod and teammates Walid Abuhaidar of the United States and Peter Madew of Australia were within three hours of the peak.
He was traversing the main ridge and stepped on a fixed rope laid to help climbers get up the moun tain. At the same time, another climber on his way down fell on the rope, catapulting Mr. Harrod off the ledge.
"I fell about five metres and landed straight on my ankle, and hence, it broke," he said. "I tried to stand on it and suddenly felt ex treme pain and fell over."
Mr. Harrod said the other climber and his Sherpa guide helped him back to the ledge, but after about 45 minutes they had disappeared. "The first thing I knew they were disappearing down the mountain in front of me. I was quite angry because they had caused the accident."
He said he was briefly alone before his two teammates were there to help him. Because he was unable to stand up on his leg, he made his way down on his side, holding the fixed line and some times travelling on his knees.
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030613.uclimb0613/BNStory/International/
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