Number in series 70; Year of publication 1986 - Fell and Rock ...

G. Sutton 157tooth....'Ron's voice came up: 'You've spoilt your balance, having that tooth out; it'sleft you too light in front and too heavy behind!'I said: 'Forceps to you —!' But in the end, by gosh, I got up. Half up, anyhow.I'd still the worst bit. I had to raise myself from my knees to my feet, withoutfalling backwards.It's not easy, any time; and today — thanks to that beastly dentist, probably —it defied me. So I did something very wrong: reached up and helped myself insecret to a nice pull on the rope. Most unorthodox. The wrongness is, that ifyou pull up on a rope the leader feels that it's taut, and doesn't haul in the slack.So, as you rise, you get a two-or-three-foot loop hanging down by you; and ifyou come unstuck just then, of course, you're going to drop so much, clear. Andthat's what happened to me. I was just upright when my toe slipped, myknuckles grazed the rock, a stinging pain made me let go the rope, and I swayedover backwards. I dropped two feet before the slack ran out; and my full hayhee-hocame on the Doctor's rope with a bang.I must explain now, how the Doctor was fixed. He was up out of sight of us,on the flat summit of the final pyramid, with the rope belayed round hisshoulder. And by the way, people ask sometimes if it isn't rather worrying, on arock-climb, to have nothing beneath you. Well, it's not, really; you don't thinkof it; and you couldn't do anything if you did. It's much more of a stinker tohave nothing above. You see, the leader's job is to tie on to something firmabove, in case the next man comes off: some flake, or spike. But on the Needle,you're on top of everything and there's nothing left to tie on to. The only safething you can do is to drape several loops of rope round the peak itself, beneathwhere you're sitting; you have to loop yourself below yourself, if you see what Imean — because there M no above. The Doctor'd done that all right. But when Ifell, the jerk on my rope dragged him off his perch and he half dropped, halfslithered down the face of the pyramid, until his own belay held.The whole thing happened in a flash; but if you've followed me so far I thinkyou'll see how it landed us. I'd been left dangling over Ron, a few feet above theledge; the Doctor's fall released my rope, and I came tumbling on to Ron, whocollapsed with me. But the Doctor's case was more serious. He must have comedown a good fifteen feet before the belay stopped him. Then the rope snapped— it wasn't built for such a strain. They make 'em good for a hundred andsomething pounds, you know, dropping umpteen feet — probably in a vacuum;but the Doctor's gravity's a bit plus-ish. Still it broke his fall; the wonder was, itdidn't bisect the beggar. It stopped him dead, a yard above the pair of us; andwhen it parted, down he slumped on to us.But, by jove, we weren't finished yet! As we lay there, half dazed, and sortingourselves out, we heard a kind of rumbling. And Ron let our a yell. And Ilooked up and saw that the huge pyramid which forms the Needle-tip was adrift!It's a poised block, you know: not part of the main mass. I'd always heard you327