Altitude: 5300m to 6500m
Atmospheric Pressure: 558mbar to 480mbar
Trek:11km / 6hr30
Fter the normal dinner at 18:30,
followed by some short chit chat, the whole group headed to bed, hoping to get
some sleep before heading off at 1am.
I managed to get 2 hours sleep, just managing to stay awake
till 10pm to hear a big avalanche,
not great for nerves.
I get dressed in the -13DegC tent, and head for a small bowl
of porridge. My stomah can’t really take much more.
Monica and Russ are up to wish us good luck, they know the
risk, we just imagine them….
Russell check that our avalanche transceivers are switched
on as we walk out of camp.
The 1st 30mins to crampons point is a very steady
pace, ideal to help with digestion.
As we arrive to crampon point, Sergey and I are ready first
and eager to get going, and we push a sherpa to lead the way.
Russ has organized personal sherpas for Jaco and Martin as
they only have 1 working arm / hand and they will need help with all the
un-clipping / clipping on the fix rope, and it’s Jaco’s sherpa who lead the
way.
But when Jaco’s crampon becomes loose, Sergey and I are
forced to push on ahead by ourselves, in pitch dark, at 2am, through the unknown, maze ice fall, with Bruce, the
first guide, 5mins behind, we feel quite alone.
At first, this is actually quite good fun, Sergey is leading
the way, spotting the single set of foot prints zigzagging through the ice
blocks and following the fixed rope threading its way through the chaos of ice.
We go up, down, around and sometimes parts below the ice
blocks. I find myself thinking “don’t move, please don’t move now” or it would
have crushed my legs.
It’s very dark, but the head torch uncovers huge blocks
(house size at least) and massive crevasses. This area is what is called the
“big popcorn”.
Eventually, we arrive in a flat area, surrounded by walls of
ice, and split with crevasses every 10m or so. Sergey looks at me and we both
say “we must be at the football field!”.
This is good sign, we making good progress. I radio Russ our
position and his warm voice makes me feel we’re doing good, as well as leading
the group.
Half way through the football field, the sherpas have put 2
blue barrels, indicating a safe resting place. We feel good and decide to push
on rather than stop and get cold, much to the disappointment of Bruce who
things we’re pushing too hard.
We pass the prayer flags and enter the risky area. Sergey is
still leading, but we reach a point where the ropes go in 2 different
direction. This happens because this area is active everyday and the ropes get
buried often and a new route has to be set every night, hence the single set of
foot prints.
Sergey goes one way and I go the other way, which turns out
to be the route for today and I start leading the way.
It’s very similar to what we’ve been through so far, with occasional
ladders, but suddenly, a loud noise comes from our left and we both hide behind
the biggest ice block close to us. I keep my head out and shine my torch
towards the noise. We all thought this wouldn’t happen to us, but we’ve just
witness the first serac fall, quite close to us.
I look at Sergey and he has the same look of fear in his
eyes, we’re both scared!
We push on, and suddenly, 10 minutes later, a louder
“crack”, closer and bigger, followed by massive roar coming towards us. I hide
behind a block and feel the rope getting tighter as Sergey plunge behind
another block. Again, I keep my torch toward the noise, but this time, I stare
at a huge cloud of snow coming our way, precursor of the bigger debris.
Luckily, the debris don’t make it to us, and the block
behind which we’re hiding don’t move and crush us. We are both shit scared and
panicking “Lets get out of here quick, keep moving”, We know we have to get our of here quick. To
our right is a massive block of ice, toppled over, offering a 15m high, 70Deg
slope with the fixed rope going up it. I turn around to see the Jaco and his
sherpa have rushed towards us as well.
I just find the time to get on the radio to clear that
Sergey and I are safe. We must have been very close to the “action”.
The sherpa is shouting, “safety first, go up, safety first”
and we found all 4 of us jumaring as quickly as our lungs and legs would allow,
hoping to find safety at the top of this ice block.
At the top is a flat path, with enough room for all of us to
catch our breaths and keep moving.
The fix rope carries on and I follow it as quickly as I can,
until we eventually reach “blood and guts” ladder which marks the end of the
high risk area, from then on, the terrain is much easier with a few ladder
crossing to keep us on our toes.
We eventually reach Camp 1, I’ve pulled a small gap on
Sergey, and find myself on my own.
As I reach the first tents, I radio Russell to let him know
my position. It’s still dark and I can’t find our 6 green tents, so I decide to
stop to get some energy back.
I take a gel and drink some water, but after 5 minutes, even
though I’ve put on my down jacket, I feel very cold and decide to get going
rather than wait for the others.
Bruce, the guide, stopped at our tents, where Amanda, Annie
and Jamie have stopped yesterday to spend the night and recover. They have hot
drinks ready for the guys.
I have no physical energy left, physically or emotionally.
Nothing could have prepared us for the huge scale of the icefall and for the
near miss with the serac fall. No words can describe it’s size and it’s
wilderness, and it was too dark for pictures.
Not an experience I will forget soon,
As I set off to Camp 2, I realize day light is coming up,
and I find myself surrounded by the huge shadows of the mountains around the
Western Cwm. The valley feels much narrower than I would have expected.
Luckily, the slope between Camp 1 and Camp 2 is fairly
gentle, we’re on top of the glacier, with more ladders set up to get across the
bigger crevasses.
I have another 400m of ascent to walk, but this will take me
2 hours to make it to Camp 2 as every step becomes a mental strain.
Eventually, the wind becomes much too cold in my face and I
stop to put on my balaclava and big mitaines.
Sergey decided to push on, I have no idea how he can cope
with this cold.
Eventually, we can see Camp 2, problem is, the guides have
warned us that from seeing the “bottom” of Camp 2, our camp is actually a
further 30 mins up at least.
Sergey, 20m ahead now, turns around every 10 mins and shakes
both his arms, to say “where is that f@@@ing camp!!”.
Russell has placed our camp as high as possible to avoid
water contamination, which can be a problem here, if you don’t know what people
above you do with human waste!!
We’re both exhausted when we reach camp, still with this
freezing cold cutting straight through us. It’s 7:30am,
and Adrian and Brian are up to welcome us as we slip into the warm kitchen tent
where milk tea is handed to us. Heaven!!
30mins later, Jaco and Francis arrive and they too are
exhausted, cold and emotionally spent. They arrive on border of hypothermia.
They’ve done awesome considering Jaco has only 1 arm and Francis right hand
does not work….. what an achievement to have made it through the ice fall,
using the fixed ropes and having to swap the clip very, very often.
Jaco recalls that the last time he had been that scared was
in Afghan, when he got hit by the rocket, the same noise and the same ignorance
of where death will come from.
Till the end of the day, I can’t stop crying every time we
mention the episode though the
ice fall, and how close we were to trouble, a mixture of
exhaustion and emotional first!!
I mention to Jaco that I kept hearing voices behind me
through the ice fall, seems unsual to have people chatting through there, but
it turns out it was Jaco’s sherpa praying all the way up through the ice fall,
and they all do it, every time! Thank you for the prayers!
As the day passes, with the different account of the day, it
turns out all of us arrived in camp
exhausted physically, mentally and emotionally, some of the grown up man even
admitting to crying when arriving into Camp 2. What a day!!
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