fantastictimeandIwasinparadise.”
Little did they know the ordeal that
awaited them.T
HE friends headed off after
breakfast in perfect climbing
conditions. Jethro carried his
camera equipment in his
backpack, along with a boul-
dering pad – which is laid on
thegroundincaseoffalls–climbing
shoes, water and food.
Whilemakinghiswayuparounded
hill, he encountered a shelf about 1,5m
tall and tried to navigate his way around
it.Nick,amoreexperiencedclimber,had
movedafewmetresaheadofhim.
Jethro says because he was moving up-
wards, he didn’t notice a boulder had dis-
lodged.“I’mnotsurehowithappened
–itcould’vebeenthevibrationsofmy
walkingorIcould’venudgedit.But
the boulder came loose and start-
ed moving down.”
As soon as he saw it,
he turned to his left and
triedtopushhimself
out of the way. But the
rockwasrollingtoofast
and hurtled towards
him, crashing into his
legs and pinning his
right leg under it.
“I remember the snap
of bone and this intense
weight crushing my leg.He yelled to Nick who came running
down the mountain. Nick dug around
Jethro’s right leg but couldn’t make
enough room for his friend to pull his
limb out, so Nick prised the boulder from
hislegenoughforJethrotopullfree.
Hisleftlegwasclearlybroken–buthis
rightlegwasamess.“Itwascompletely
crushedandtherewasalotofbleeding.
Theleglookedflat,let’sputitthatway.
“NickandIarebothlevel-headed.We
understood the severity of the situation
andwebothknewwhatweneededto
do. There was no drastic panic.”
Nickrippedoffhisshirtandtiedit
around Jethro’s leg to diminish the blood
flow–anactiontheylaterlearntsaved
his life.
“Nicklookedatmeandsaid,‘MyGod,
you’rebroken.’Thenherandownthe
mountain to find a cellphone signal and
called the campsite, where people alert-
ed the paramedics.”
Jethro isn’t sure how long it took for
helptoarrive–hewastoofocusedon
staying alive. But he does remember Nick
running up and down the mountain: up
tocheckonhimanddowntobevisible
to the paramedics.
Once they arrived, they stabilised
Jethro and gave him pain medication
before he was airlifted to Mediclinic
Milnerton in Cape Town. He was later
transferred to Christiaan Barnard for
more specialised treatment.
Dr Kirsten Bischof told Jethro his right
legwasdeadandthatitneededtobe
amputatedinordertosavehislife.
“AllIcouldthinkwasthatIwantedto
live.Ineverconsideredwhatthequality
ofmylifewouldbeorevenifI’dclimb
again.Ijustwantedtolive.”
Jethro’sleftlegwasbrokenatthehead
of the tibia and will take months to heal.
Buthehopestoregainenoughmobility
and strength in the limb so he can
become mobile and perhaps even climb
again.
“Even if it’s in some limited fashion,” he
says. “I want to return to climbing and
hiking and I’m placing my bets on the
fact I’ll build the muscle to support the
knee properly.”
Jethro, who’s single, acknowledges rock
climbing is an inherently dangerous
sport but says he was always careful and
before this he’d had no major incidents.
“I’m not angry at the world. I’m sad
this happened and it’s certainly difficult
to deal with. But I believe it’ll have a good
outcome – one way or the other.”Stheguywhowrenchedtherockfrom
Jethro’slegwithhisbarehands.
The two climbers had known each
other only a few weeks before that dra-
matic day – but now they have a bond
that will last a lifetime.J
ETHROfellinlovewithbouldering
eight years ago and has spent the
past four years immersing himself
in the extreme sport.
HemovedfromPretoria,where
he worked as a project manager for
a construction company, to Cape Town
to become what he calls a full-time
nomadic rock climber.
Hechangedhisdiettoonerichincom-
plex carbohydrates and green leafy veg-
etables for maximum strength and brain
power,andhequitsmoking.Hestarted
supporting himself by doing online pro-
jectmanagement,allowinghimplentyof
time for his bouldering.
The sport involves climbers scaling
boulders without ropes or harnesses, us-
ingonlyspecialclimbingshoestosecure
footholdsandchalktokeeptheirhands
dry.
Jethro’s climbing technique significant-
ly improved so he decided to go to Rock-
lands, an isolated rock-climbing camp in
the Cederberg where climbers from
across the world gather.
Hesetupcampon20Apriland
planned to spend winter in Rocklands as
it presented the perfect weather for
climbing.Theareadoesn’tgetmuchrain
andiscoolandcalminthemid-year
months.
JethrometNick,aclimberfromArizo-
naintheUSA,soonaftersettlingintothe
campandtheyhititoffinstantly.
On the morning of 13 July they
set off in high spirits to tackle
another climb.
“Iwasclimbingwell,”Jethro
says.“Ihadgoodpeo-
ple around me. It
was a‘I remember the snap
of the bone and this
weight crushing my leg’
American climber Nick Muehlhausen was
with Jethro on the day of the accident- and his actions helped to save his life.
you.co.za 22 AUGUST 2019 | (^17)
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