“Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man’s Miraculous Survival” by Joe Simpson

The next few seconds were unforgettable.

I was inside a protective waterproof bivouac bag, half-asleep, and Ian was making final adjustments to his safety line. Suddenly and without warning, I felt myself drop swiftly. Simultaneously there was an ear-splitting roar and grinding. With my head inside the bag and my arms flailing outside the opening at my chestI knew nothing except the sickening dread as I went plummeting down into the 2,000-foot abyss below. I heard a high-pitched yelp of fear amid the heavy roaring, then felt a springy recoil. The safety rope had held. All my weight was held on my armpits, as I had accidentally caught the safety rope in the fall. I swung gently on the rope, trying to remember whether I had ted-in to the rope and gripping my arms tight just in case.

The thunderous sound of tons of granite plunging down the pillar echoed and then died to silence.

– Joe Simpson, “Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man’s Miraculous Survival”

If you choose to pick this one up, here’s a couple definitions that will be useful.

Cornice: an overhanging mass of windblown snow or ice usually on a ridge

Fluting (Glaciology): In glaciology, flutes are narrow, elongated, straight, parallel ridges generally consisting of till, but sometimes composed of sand or silt/clay.

Serac: a pinnacle, sharp ridge, or block of ice among the crevasses of a glacier (Wikipedia link)

Bivouac: A bivouac shelter or bivvy (alternately bivy, bivi, bivvi) is any of a variety of improvised camp site, or shelter that is usualfily of a temporary nature, used especially by soldiers, or people engaged in backpacking, bikepacking, scouting, or mountain climbing.

Bivi tent:

Fissure: (Wikipedia link) a narrow opening or crack of considerable length and depth usually occurring from some breaking or parting

Couloir: A couloir may be a seam, scar, or fissure, or vertical crevasse in an otherwise solid mountain mass.