Deaths and/or unexplained disappearances on mountaineering expeditions tend to have a long tail ...
In 1985 I was the 'third man' on a climbing expedition on Suila Grande, in Peru. I remained at base camp while two young Brits I only knew by name went up the mountain. My visa was set to expire soon, and I would have to depart camp after a set number of days (I forgot how many) in order to be able to reach Lima in time to renew it. Those number of days expired before they came back, and I was faced with a bit of a quandary > Remain with an expired visa and very little food, hoping that two basically mystery men would return. Or, just slip away and tell nobody about it. I didn't know enough about them to be able to inform their families, and I didn't relish the prospect of telling the Peruvian authorities, or the the British embassy, anything about it. Another complication was that Sendero Luminoso were active in the area, and were homing in on Cajatambo - a small 'town' at the end of a road, and a place anyone on the mountain would need to pass through en-route to Lima.
I remained at the camp ...
After being able to wait no longer, one morning I set off walking up the glacier towards the mountain face, to do what, I don't know! Shortly afterwards I met one of the climbers staggering back towards the camp. He explained how he had to cut the rope in order to save himself, but sending the other bloke to his death. He was in a bit of a state, as one can imagine, with a major issue being what to tell people about it. We both decided to say nothing to anyone until we got back to the UK. The local authorities would have arrested him for murder, pending an 'investigation' ...
Three days later the other bloke came back ... Thus ending the long internal debates about who to tell about it, and what to say!
I've got some photos somewhere I will add later (taken on a Pentax :-( )
Oh, if you haven't already figured it out, the climbers were Joe and Simon, and it was the infamous 'Touching The Void' saga.
Just found this montage online - all photos I took. Simon in the center, me on the right. Photos taken minutes after I found him, and while we were pondering what to do and say.
