31 August 2008 Bishkek , Kyrgyzstan
After a long 10 month wait, I’m finally here in Kyrgyzstan – sitting in a luxury hotel in Bishkek.
I’ve signed up for an expedition to the “Unclimbed Peaks of the Tien Shan”. Organised by the International School of Mountaineering (ISM) the aim of the expedition is to explore the Western Kookshaal-Too region, which is on the Kyrgyzstan-China border. This area has many mountains above 5,000 metres and there are still peaks that are unclimbed, including the mighty Grand Poopah at 5,697 metres.
The trip out here went smoothly – 1½ hours delay at Heathrow, 7 hours of tedium on the flight, but we arrived safe and well in Almaty, Kazakhstan at dawn. A tourist guide called Natasha picked us up in a minibus and we had a four hour drive to Bishkek – the capital city of Kyrgyzstan.
The border crossing between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan was interesting. Everyone apart from the driver had to get out and walk across the border. There was a passport check exiting Kazakhstan where officious looking customs people spent 5 minutes checking all visas were in order. We then had a 400 metre walk across a bridge to the Kyrgyzstan border where we were each subjected to a further 5 minute check of passport and visas with lots of flamboyant stamping.
I had the pleasure of my first Kyrgyz toilet – very, very basic. The urinal was a sloping trough which was made from concrete and looked like it was hand moulded. The “long drop” toilets were two squats very close to each other with no partition. If two people were to use the facilities at the same time, it would be very “friendly” probably having to push against each other to make space.
The landscape is barren grassland (steppes), quite flat with strange little hillocks separated by channels. However, the mountains are a constant backdrop to this bleak landscape and my eye is constantly drawn to them.
Bishkek is pretty much as I imagined it – Soviet style road layout and buildings mixed in with tin roofed shacks. As in all big cities, there is a mixture of affluence and poverty with gleaming German cars cruising past people who are literally squatting by the roadside.
I must say that the heat has surprised me, 30 degrees centigrade in the middle of the day. I’m starting to think that I’ve brought too many clothes. (I had spent ages back at home agonising about what to bring, but had still managed to exceed my 30 Kg baggage allowance by about 6 Kg).
We stopped off at a restaurant called “Fat Boys” for lunch and most of us had a “Full Monty” breakfast, which was pretty revolting – there’s an odd taste to the fat used for cooking, I dread to think what it's made from ...
We arrived at the Hotel Ak Keme just before midday – very nice 5 star hotel complete with huge swimming pool and casino. I went straight to bed and had 2½ hours kip before meeting everyone mid afternoon for a guided tour of Bishkek.
It was Independence Day in Kyrgyzstan, so the main square was heaving - a mixture of young people in designer clothes and older generations in traditional clothes. Natasha took us around, showing us statues and buildings, yawn... More interesting was her views on Kyrgyzstan – she is Russian with Kyrgyzstan as her place of residence. She said that her parents and grandparents thought that life was better under Soviet times – she didn't know either way, much too young to remember. Apparently, arranged marriages and kidnappings are still common and Natasha said that several of her friends have been kidnapped and forced into a marriage.
In the evening, we went to a restaurant and met Vladimir who runs ITMC – the guiding company who have arranged all of the logistics for this expedition. Several bottles of vodka appeared on the table starting off a series of toasts. Some of the group were already in full swing having finished off a serious amount of schnapps earlier in the afternoon with Vladimir. I managed to avoid most of the drinking and only had two of the seriously large tots.
There are eight clients, two British guides, four Sherpas, one cook, two drivers and Vladimir going on the expedition. We’ll meet the Sherpa, cook and drivers tomorrow, but first impressions of the main party are good – there doesn't seem to be anyone who stands out as a pain.
Pat Littlejohn is the MD of ISM and has been running these expeditions for 15 years. Adrian is an ISM guide, lives in the Lakes and is about 40 years old – he’s been on eight previous expeditions.
James Bruton is from the south-east and has been on four previous ISM expeditions, so he knows Pat, Adrian and Vladimir very well and knows the “crack”. Leif is Danish and came on the ISM expedition last year. Simon and Jackie are a couple from Wiltshire. Jackie is not climbing but will be coming to Base Camp and doing some trekking. Simon runs marathons, looks pretty fit and is quiet. Stephen is an academic from Glasgow – a little difficult to understand when he's tipsy and talking fast.
Gareth is from Oswestry and runs a paint ball centre - he's "chaotic good". He put his rucksack into the aircraft as hold luggage complete with ice axes and walking poles on the outside – surprisingly, it all arrived safely without maiming a baggage handler. At 22 years old, Anthony is the youngest member of the team and is a final year medical student.
After dinner, we poured ourselves into two taxis and went back to the hotel. Most people went down to the hotel casino to lose money. I popped down for 5 minutes and then went to bed.
1 September 2008 Bishkek to Naryn, Kyrgyzstan
I woke just after six o'clock, got up and “faffed” about for 1½ hours until breakfast. There were a lot of grim looking people sitting around looking sorry for themselves. Most had stayed in the casino, lost money and drunk even more.
Gareth was sharing a room with James and he'd apparently got up at half past one and started to wash his clothes. He was adamant (despite James’ protests) that he needed to wash his waterproof jacket. Anthony was in a similar state and had woken up at two o'clock. Thinking that it was morning, he had started to have a shower, fallen over and dragged down his shower curtain. He had to call reception to get it sorted out. They didn't look good at all. In fact, Pat had to go up to drag Anthony out of bed at quarter to nine...
At nine o'clock, we were loaded into a minibus and ferried around to ITMC. it's a very interesting place – run-down buildings with a store shed with lots of ex-Soviet kit. They have four off-road trucks in various states of repair with several partial trucks lying about presumably for spares.
Pat and Adrian set about sorting out ropes and gear while the rest of us just hung about. By ten o'clock it had all had been sorted out and we climbed into a 6-wheel truck and set off. We were followed by a smaller 4-wheel truck which was carrying the Sherpas and a lot of our gear.
The truck is a lot more comfortable than I thought that it would be. It has seats that appear to have come from a coach. They are contoured (like bucket seats) which is a good job because the truck bounces around all over the place on the rough roads.
The road to Naryn is tarmac all the way but is broken up in places. It was difficult to read a book because the truck was bouncing about so much.
We stopped off at a cafe/restaurant for lunch and had mutton soup followed by mutton and rice. Vladimir bought the customary bottle of vodka which was soon polished off.
We stopped for a pee in the middle of nowhere during the afternoon and someone noticed a loud hissing from one of the wheels. A quick change of the massive tyre and we were on our way. Apparently, the inner tube will be repaired by tomorrow morning.
The journey wasn't too bad (in retrospect), time seemed to pass quickly. The scenery was a little monotonous and we didn't pass through many villages. However, there were lots of very small “settlements” of a few tents and “yurts” with flocks of sheep and goats. Yurts are a collapsible circular tent of felt and skins stretched over a pole frame, originally used by Central Asian nomadic peoples and now used by the native Kyrgyz nomadic people. They were very noticeable – quite Mongolian- looking faces mostly on horses or the odd donkey. Interesting to see them wearing traditional felt hats – apparently the high hats hold a lot of air which keeps the wearer’s head warm in winter and cool in summer.
We arrived at the “English Guest House” in Naryn at five o'clock - it was just like an English Bed & Breakfast. The shower was in a strange “half” bath with no shower curtain - it was a bit uncomfortable having a shower while squatting in the bath, but I need to enjoy such luxuries while I can. We had an evening meal of salad, mutton soup and (gasp) chicken. Everyone was very quiet – a combination of seven hours of travel and hangovers. We were all in our beds at nine.
2 September 2008 Naryn to Military Checkpoint, Kyrgyzstan
We got up for breakfast at half past seven and were soon outside with our bags. Sasha (the driver) was just finishing the puncture, so we hung around chatting for ages while everything was sorted out. Once we were on the move, we went into Naryn town centre, where Sasha managed to buy two second-hand tyres for the truck – which was amazing considering the size of the town.
We walked around the market, while Vladimir and his team went to buy provisions for the trip. The market consisted of lots of small stalls selling anything that you want. The food market was only selling basic vegetables and the meat market was stalls with lots of hacked up pieces of mutton and the inevitable flies.
After a couple of hours, we set off and travelled up a very rough track towards a high pass at 3200m. The landscape consisted of lots of grassland with Yurts, herds of horses, flocks of sheep and the occasional herd of Yaks.
We stopped off at a nice grassy area by the side of a stream for a “picnic” lunch. This was the first meal prepared by Olga (our cook), and very tasty it was too. Vladimir had picked up a sheep in Naryn, which was let out of the small truck for a bit of grass. The plan is apparently for the sheep to come to the Base Camp with us where it will be “dispatched” for our culinary enjoyment.
The area to which we were travelling is on the border with China and there are ongoing disputes with the Chinese. As this remains a sensitive area, we had to pass through three Military checkpoints where passports, visas and special travel permits for the region were carefully checked. There have been reports of difficulties at these checkpoints where officials have said that there are problems with documentation and only a bit of “baksheesh” will smooth the passage.
Vladimir is well used to this and, apparently, melons have been popular in the past, but this year he had a better method – giving a lift to a Military officer and his wife. Not surprisingly, our passage through the checkpoints was pretty smooth.
When we arrived at the first checkpoint, we hung about for about ¾ hour waiting for the smaller truck to catch us up. During this wait, a car appeared from the Naryn direction and a couple got out with a bottle of vodka. Vladimir immediately called for Pat and a few rounds of toasting took place. Once the bottle was empty, the couple got back in the car and headed back to Naryn.
Eventually, Vladimir decided that we had better go back to find the small truck, so we all piled into the large truck and headed back down. We found it about a mile away struggling up the steep track. The solution was to connect a cable to it and tow it up to the Military checkpoint. It turned out that the truck was struggling was because it has a dodgy fuel pump (which had apparently been a problem for a “few trips”. By this time, we had lost a couple of hours, so Pat was getting a little tetchy and had a word with Vladimir about perhaps fixing the fuel pump. Vladimir simply shrugged and said that “it always has trouble getting up steep hills”. (Later in the evening, Sasha changed the fuel pump). This appears to be a common Kyrgyz attitude – “don’t fix it unless it’s completely broken”.
At the second checkpoint, we were treated to the sight of some locals driving up who were completely paralytic on vodka. Once cleared through the checkpoint, one guy insisted on wandering about shaking hands. They then had a few more shots of vodka, before jumping back into the car and roaring off, weaving back down the road towards Naryn.
The plan was to go through a third Military checkpoint and then camp somewhere about an hour further on, but with the various delays, it was decided that we would stay at the Military camp by the checkpoint. This was helped by the fact that we were giving a lift to the camp commander.
Some people ended up pitching tents and some of us dossed down in two unused rooms in one of the buildings. I managed to bag an old bed, which seemed a good idea at the time. Unfortunately, it creaked loudly every time I moved.
We were treated to our first taste of “Koumis” – the local drink made from fermented mare’s milk. This was delightfully presented in a 5 litre Shell motor oil canister. The drink is about 3% alcohol and has a very odd taste – quite bitter, a bit fizzy then an odd, ”peaty” after taste. I had a few sips, tried not to grimace and managed to pour the rest away when our “host” was not looking.
Olga managed to prepare a fine meal of mutton after which we retired to bed.
3 September 2008 Military Checkpoint to Base Camp, Kotur Glacier, Kyrgyzstan
I slept well in my new sleeping bag. We got up at half past six. Olga cooked a fantastic breakfast of omelette and pancakes. I’m quite excited about the thought of getting to Base Camp after 3 days of travelling.
We left the army base at about half past eight and travelled along a dirt track alongside the mountains. It was very bumpy along the track, but I was chatting to Pat about sailing and the time passed quickly. The last hour was exciting as we finally went off road and up a river bed to arrive at Base Camp at half past twelve. It is a nice flat area, below the moraine, about 1 kilometre from the Kotur Glacier, at an altitude of 3,900 metre and on the edge of the streams coming down from the glacier. VIEW LOCATION.
We had lunch, then donned our mountain boots and went for a walk towards the glacier. It was very loose moraine up to the glacier. Gareth and I went right up to the snout of the glacier and discovered a very fast wide stream running across the front of it. Pat and Adrian reckon that the flow will be a much less in the mornings.
On the way back to Base Camp, Gareth and I came across an 8 to 10 metre diameter boulder that I thought would be good for bouldering. When we got back to Base Camp, I mentioned it to Pat who immediately wanted to go and have a look. Pat, Anthony and I grabbed our rock shoes and walked back up. It was a bit further away than I thought and I was starting to have doubts about how good it would be. Thank God that when we got there Pat thought that it was good. We had an enjoyable hour bouldering with Pat showing us the way to go. I only managed three out of Pat’s five routes - two of them had me panting for breath because they were a bit thin on holds.
Back at camp, we had a fantastic evening meal of lamb and rice with salad. We've started to get drinking water directly from the glacial streams – tastes good.
Tomorrow, we plan to walk for four hours up to Advance Base Camp 1 (ABC1) and set up tents there. We'll then walk back down to Base Camp to acclimatise some more. I'm in bed at nine o'clock. This is my first night in my new tent and I've found that I've got so much stuff that there wouldn't be room for anyone, but me in here.
4 September 2008 Base Camp, Kotur Glacier, Kyrgyzstan
I woke up this morning at quarter to seven to a dusting of snow. Last night was OK, but I didn't sleep well. There were strong winds at about ten o'clock with snow hitting the tent. I tossed and turned most of the night.
We had breakfast at seven o'clock and left camp at quarter past eight to walk up to ABC1. We walked over the moraine to the snout of the glacier. On the way, we found some bear tracks - the camp commander back at the army camp had told Vladimir that a bear and cub had been spotted in the Kokshall-too area.
The stream wasn't as deep or as wide as yesterday afternoon, so we piled rocks into the stream to make a set of stepping stones. The walk up the glacier was tough – 12 kilometres with 700 metre of ascent and most of it in at least a foot of soft snow. The slope is fairly gentle but remorseless. At least we didn't have to wear crampons and only had to get roped up for the last third of the route when we could see signs of crevasses.
The group was split into two, based on apparent fitness. Simon, Anthony, Steve and me ended up in the front with Adrian, while James and Gareth stayed with Pat. Lief had a major problem with the altitude, feeling dizzy and was very slow, so he went back at the point where we roped up.
I was only just keeping up with Adrian’s pace, which was remorseless with no stopping. On the last half kilometre, I had to ask him to stop. I removed my fleece and had some power gel, but my legs were like jelly. I was somewhat heartened when the others said that they were also struggling. I feel like the guides are testing us – hopefully I came out OK.
Vladimir and the Sherpas passed us on the first half of the glacier. The Sherpas were young Russian lads and as fit as a butcher’s dog; they were carrying huge packs with two tents, climbing gear, etc. One of them was actually jogging up the glacier to catch his mates.
It took us 4.5 hours to get up to the camping area at a height of 4,700 metres. VIEW LOCATION
The peaks surrounding the glacier are very impressive especially at the top end. When we arrived at ABC1, Adrian immediately started to probe an area of snow, checking for crevasses. He then marked out an area about 10m x 5m. The Sherpas then started to shovel out the top foot or so of snow and we then stomped down the area.
We then erected two Terranova tents and secured them in place with our ice axes. Adrian dug a two foot trench inside each front porch to make it easier to get in and out of the tent with boots on. The trench is brilliant. I could sit with my feet in the trench and it's very comfortable. It’s also very useful for putting a stove in for melting snow or cooking.
We left any gear behind that we thought we wouldn't need on the walk back up. The whole process took about ½ hour and we left as clouds started to build and the first flakes of snow fell. We passed Pat's group about 200 metres from ABC1.
We descended as a roped team in light snow, but the skies cleared by the time we got to the place to un-rope. The last half of the descent was really tough on my knees – there was a thin covering of ice over water. The water was only about 1” deep, but as we walked we punched through the surface ice. The problem was that you didn't know if the front, back or either side of your foot would punch through – very tiring.
The traverse of the river was okay – it was a lot higher than in the morning, but the stepping stores were passable. The moraine seemed to go on and on and on, but we eventually got back to the Base Camp after exactly 8 hours of hard graft.
I immediately went to bed and slept for one hour. I then started to sort out my kit thinking that we were going back up to ABC1 tomorrow.
We had dinner at seven o'clock and everyone looked shattered (even Pat and Adrian). It was decided that we would have a rest day tomorrow – thank God. I'm going to have a strip-down wash – I feel filthy.
Everyone was in bed by eight o'clock.
5 September 2008 Base Camp, Kotur Glacier, Kyrgyzstan
Vladimir brought “chai” around to everyone’s tent at half past seven. There was a bit of tent sorting out – I erected a washing line and hung some clothes out to de-smell them. My Berghaus long sleeved vest and North Face jumper stank. I guess that they are retaining sweaty smells even after being washed. I've started wearing them during the day when walking/climbing and another shirt in the evening in bed.
Simon is having trouble with his neck and other people have aches after yesterday, so Pat had a Pilate’s session which was quite good.
I went for a strip down wash by the stream with a half bucket of hot water. It was fantastic, standing bollock-naked washing myself all over with a soapy flannel. It was getting a bit chilly, so I put on trousers and boots before washing my hair. I'm glad I did because it started to snow as I was rinsing my hair. Then I remembered that I’d left my sleeping bag airing on top of my tent! I quickly dried off and ran back to my tent, but thankfully, James had already rescued my stuff and put it into my tent. I got in my tent and changed my underpants for the first time in three days. It’s great to feel clean again – the last shower was in Bishkek four days ago. I think that the worst bit about being dirty is the way that my thighs stick together in the sleeping bag. I've not even washed my face for three days, but have been using wet wipes.
Once’ I’d got clean, I remembered that I’d left my watch by the stream, so I had to get dressed again to retrieve it. While I was out, I thought I’d go over to the communal tent (which is a very old patched up white frame tent). Vladimir, Steve, Anthony and Gareth were already in there chatting about Vladimir’s ITMC business.
Anthony disappeared and came back with a bottle of Jack Daniels. Vladimir got Olga to make some “vodka snack” (a fantastic mixture of grated cheese, garlic and mayonnaise). The stuff tastes fantastic on bread with vodka. The banter continued as other people rolled up. This “snack” session rolled into lunch (mutton soup, salad and fried potato). There seems to be an unlimited number of variations of mutton soup.
Vladimir maintains the best record of the various peaks that have been climbed in Kyrgyzstan. He says that he knows all that happened pre-Perostryka because all Russian climbing teams had to register their climbs. After Perostryka there have been some expeditions that haven’t reported on their activities. Vladimir is one of the few Russian “Snow Leopards” that have climbed all 7000 metre peaks in the Old Soviet Union.
“The Old Buffalo” as narrated by Vladimir
There was an old buffalo and a young buffalo standing high up on the mountain looking enviously down at a herd of cows in the valley. They wanted to go down and get “acquainted” with the cows, but a shepherd was usually watching over them.
One day the shepherd left the herd to go home to get “acquainted” with his wife.
The young buffalo turned to the old buffalo “quick, let’s run down there, shag one of the cows and run back up here”.
“No” said the old buffalo, “let’s walk down there slowly, shag them all and walk back slowly”.
(Vladimir is 58 – an old buffalo.)
Mammut is investing a lot of money in Kyrgyzstan and Vladimir is in charge of the new guide qualification programme which has an affiliation to the Swiss Guide Organisation.
By the time lunch had finished, the snow had stopped leaving us with 3-4” of snow. After clearing our tents of snow, a ferocious snowball fight started between four of us and the three Russian Sherpas. Olga joined in and ended up having a wrestling match with Gareth in the snow (could it be love?)
Gareth has turned out to be the clown of the group – ex RAF Aircraft Mechanic, he has a Forces “robust” sense of humour and no sense of embarrassment. As I write this he’s just ambushed Olga outside her cooking tent and rammed snow down her neck (again!). At times other times, he sounds a bit like the old guy off the Vicar of Dibley (No, no, no.)
We now have two snowmen – it's interesting that the Russians have also built one.
It’s a good job that we didn't go up to ABC, it must be a lot worse up there and we’d probably have only been half way in the worst of the snow. We’d definitely have been coming back down. The plan is to take my tent up with us, so I would have to take it down and put it back up when we got back – I'm so glad we didn't go.
There were brief flurries of snow during the afternoon with sunny intervals. As the sun went down, the temperature dropped and half an hour later as we went for dinner it started to snow again. We went to bed at nine o'clock with another 3” of snow and no sign of it stopping.
The plan for tomorrow is to have breakfast at seven o'clock and have a nine o'clock start up to ABC (weather permitting). I guess that it will be a cold night, so I'm glad that I bought a new sleeping bag….
6 September 2008 Base Camp, Kotur Glacier, Kyrgyzstan
I woke up at half past six to 20 knot winds and horizontal snow. My watch showed -2°C in the tent. However, I was nice and toasty in my sleeping bag. It took a great effort to get out and get dressed in my mountain clothes.
I went into breakfast and as expected we are having another Base Camp day. I dug the snow off my tent again and changed into my plastic boots and went for a walk with Vladimir and four of the others.
We left just before nine o'clock – it was advertised as a short walk to the glacier, so I didn't bother taking any water or a rucksack. Unfortunately the plans changed and we ended up ascending peak 4323 and being out for 3½ hours.
We walked across the moraine, onto the glacier, then along the foot of the glacier heading east and up to a col overlooking the next valley. Vladimir pointed out a few peaks with first ascents that had been done on previous ISM trips.
It was only about half past ten, so we decided to go up a steep scree slope leading to Peak 4326. VIEW LOCATION It was about a 45° slope, but I was pleased that I coped well with the altitude. The wind picked up as we ascended with horizontal snow, so we turned around at a large rock nearly at the top. I descended down a snow covered bit of the slope which I think made it easier than coming directly down the scree.
Vladimir has started to call Anthony “Mad Dog” – he’s 22 years old and just wants to rush ahead all the time. He’s a really nice bloke and does everything with the enthusiasm of youth. He also tends to just blurt things out. The other day at ABC1, he blurted out that he thought the col above looked easy, Adrian told him that he was “talking a load of shit”. This phrase has turned into a bit of a catch phrase now.
Vladimir decided to let the faster members of the team go down from the col as a separate team. He told “Mad Dog” had to stay with the “Old Buffalo” pointing at me and gave us specific instructions where to cross onto the glacier. We arrived back at camp at 1230 – the moraine from the glacier is getting longer.
I was pleased with my fitness – I didn't really get out of breath and felt good. I've been feeling a bit apprehensive about going up to ABC1 again, but I think that I'm now acclimatised – we will see …..
We had a nice lunch of "Borsch" – cabbage and beetroot soup. Most people hung around to have a bit of banter - the highlight was Gareth trying to explain the game of conkers to Vladimir. Vladimir’s only comment was “we don’t do this in Russia"...
I went to my tent and slept for 1½ hours. The weather was changeable during the afternoon with strong winds and snow showers, but it seems to be brightening up – I hope that it will be good enough to go up to ABC1 tomorrow – I feel that I am ready to go mountaineering now.
It’s been a full week since we flew out of Heathrow and the group seem to fit together well – no one is a pain in the neck yet.
I've taken to hiding in my tent in the afternoon – it gives me some personal space, but being alone gets me thinking of home. I'm finding living in a tent is getting better because I now know what I need to hand and things are starting to stay in the same place. The variation in temperature in the tent is amazing – in the afternoon, it can fluctuate from very hot when the sun is out to cold enough for a jacket when the sun goes in.
We had dinner at six o'clock accompanied by the usual sort of banter – tonight the main event was naming the highest mountain in lots of different countries.
I'm in bed at half past eight and it's still grim weather - windy and snowing. The plan tomorrow is that someone is going to do a weather check and wake us up at a suitable time for breakfast. The atmospheric pressure is rising now, so fingers crossed …
7 September 2008 Base Camp to Advanced Base Camp, Kotur Glacier, Kyrgyzstan
We woke up at half past six to brilliant blue skies. I had just dragged myself out of my sleeping bag, as Vladimir arrived with the tea and then started to pack ready to go up to ABC1. I took my tent down and gave it to the Sherpas to carry up.
When I woke this morning, I started to worry about who I wanted to share my tent with at ABC1. Steve is Scottish, an academic who likes to talk a bit too much for my liking - also sat on the truck next to him and he doesn't mind invading one’s personal space which doesn't bode well. Lief is a really nice guy, but is rather large. Simon is quite quiet, so I decided he was my best option. I wandered over to his tent and asked him if I could store my stuff in his gear tent. In the ensuing conversation, I asked him if he wanted to share my tent at ABC1. He agreed – sorted!
We left at nine o'clock, climbed onto the glacier 40 minutes later and arrived at ABC1 at half past two - 5½ hours this time with bigger packs. The walk up was hard work, but the weather was fantastic – blue skies all the way.
The two tents were still there and only partially covered in snow. The four Sherpas arrived shortly after us and I helped them by storing all the food and kit that they brought up into one tent. Adrian and the others cleared snow and put up two more Terranova tents. It’s really difficult to do anything at this altitude of 4,700 metres – I had a go at shovelling and had to give up.
Pat and the others arrived about an hour after us and put up James’ huge red tent. Good old Vladimir gave us back massages while the tent was being erected. Vladimir then started melting snow to make some tea to drink and after that he made dinner – a kind of stew with mutton and noodles. The rest of us hung around admiring the scenery (which is spectacular) and getting cold.
The three guides and James are sleeping in the big red tent. This tent is a Hillenberg and belongs to James. He tells me that it took two years for them to deliver it – apparently they make this type of tent to order. It's fantastic tent for this kind of camping - it can sleep four at a squeeze and it's large enough for people to sit around with a large cooking area. The rest of us are in the Terranovas. They didn't need to put up my tent, so Simon and I grabbed one of the other ones.
Vladimir was cooking in the big red tent, so it was lovely and warm in there and I was getting jealous because we were just getting colder. To compensate, I put on my merino wool long-johns which helped. Once I'd put these long-johns on, I never took them off even to sleep!
After dinner, each tent was given a stove to melt snow for water. Pat lent me his own little Coleman micro stove with a warning that is cost £55! He got a bit crinkly the next day because I'd managed to bend the three arms a bit, they are very flimsy…
Back in our tent, Simon got into his sleeping bag and I melted shovel loads of snow and poured it into our drinking bottles.
The plan tomorrow is to stay at ABC1 to let the new snow consolidate before attempting to go over the col to ABC2. I think Adrian has his eye on Pik Pyramida. They'll wake us when breakfast is nearly ready. I guess that it is going to be a very cold night, so I'm sleeping in my socks, shirt and long-johns. The socks I wore today, my inner boots and my two bottles of water are going to be sharing my sleeping bag - I want to dry out my socks, I don't want my water bottles to freeze and I want my inner boots to be nice and toasty when I put them on in the morning...
8 September 2008 Pik Pyramida, Kyrgyzstan (5130m)
I had a pretty restless night and just couldn't get comfortable – if I sleep on my right side then my right shoulder aches. I don’t really like sleeping on my back or left side... Simon must have the bulkiest sleeping bag in existence - it takes up about a third of the total air space in the tent. He also snores softly and keeps moving over onto my side which doesn't help. At least I was warm - Pat reckons that it was about -15°C last night.
We climbed out of our tents to brilliant blue skies, which helped my mood – I was “down and dirty” during the night – thinking that I hate this and want to go home. Simon is down as well – he would rather be somewhere else (warm and comfortable). He’s got a cricked neck, which is giving him headaches, so that doesn't help.
We had breakfast of porridge which I had great trouble eating, but forced it down because there was nothing else. Adrian, Simon, Anthony and me are a team today. We got our kit ready and set off at just after nine o'clock towards Kotur Pass.
Blue skies, virgin snow – God I love mountaineering! The walk up to the col was a grind as can be expected at this altitude. Kotur Pass is directly on the border with China and there is a fantastic view of the many peaks on the Chinese side.
Adrian decided to continue on to climb Pik Pyramida (5,130 metres). The slope was between 30° and 45° to start with and Adrian was very concerned about slab avalanche. We stopped several times, so that he could dig down and check the snow levels. At one point the snow gave a “whumph” sound beneath us, so we backed down and moved away from the potentially unstable area. Adrian then started to place ice screws as we moved towards a rock outcrop.
Once at the rock outcrop, we had a 30 metre long, 50° ice/snow slope and then a 50° snow slope (another 30 metres) to a snowy top. We then walked along and up a knife edge ridge to the slightly higher peak. We graded the route at PD+. VIEW LOCATION
The view from the top was fantastic and we had an amazing view of all of the peaks on the China border including the Grand Poohbah which looks extremely serious. Vladimir and Lief also climbed Pik Pyramida, but didn’t go across to the true summit. Pat and the others climbed another peak called Pik Judith-Brian.
This was my first 5,000 metre peak, so I was very happy. The descent was OK – we went back along the knife edge ridge, down climbed the snow and ice slopes and trudge down 1ft deep snow slopes back to ABC1. My hips and knees were killing me by the end.
We had dinner at five o'clock and it was dark an hour later, so with nothing else to do, we all went to bed. The Sherpas are having a day off today, so we will be climbing around ABC1 tomorrow, possibly going over to the next valley and ABC2 the next day.
I'm feeling a lot more positive this evening – obviously camp life is the horrible bit between mountaineering. However, I've just discovered that the top of my sleeping bag is damp. There was frost on it this morning and I foolishly folded it in half while getting ready. I should have laid it out flat and it would have dried during the day – I hope I'm not too cold tonight.
9 September 2008 Pik Judith-Brian, Kyrgyzstan (4985m)
I had a pretty good night – warm enough – in fact at one point I had to take off one pair of thick socks. I've been wearing two pairs of socks to bed to keep me warm and make sure they are dry for the next day. In total, we had 13 hours of lying in bed, so I was well rested, if a little bored. It’s bloody miserable first thing in the morning, the camp is in shade until about half past eight and it’s (literally) freezing. I made a cup of tea and put the teabag on the snow – 2 minutes later, it was frozen to the ground.
Life gets a lot better when the sun hits the camp – the temperature rises quite quickly. We’re getting into a routine of melting snow for water and hot drinks first thing in the morning, which takes ages - it's amazing how much snow is needed to make a litre of water.
Adrian, Simon, Anthony and I left camp at quarter past nine and walked up to the col going over to the next valley. I really struggled up one steep section – totally out of breath and my legs felt like jelly. I've been making do with a light breakfast, which is probably not enough calories - the main food for breakfast is porridge, but I can't eat the bloody stuff because it makes me gag. I struggled up the whole ascent to the top of Pik Judith-Brian - I took some power gel at the col, but my legs still felt like jelly.
Despite my struggles, the climb to the top of Pik Judith-Brian is brilliant. Initially, there's a knife edge snowy arête which leads up to a rocky tower on the ridge. Adrian decided to climb over the tower instead of going around it like Pat’s team did yesterday. It turned out to be about a “severe” grade climb in crampons. We had to take our gloves off, so my hands were numb as I climbed.
There were three pitches. The first one was 15 metres and was the crux with a bit of a lay-back. The next pitch was about 15 metres and fairly easy. The last pitch to the top was a scramble. Simon did really well because he’d only rock climbed at an indoor wall a few times.
Rock climbing is all about balance and not seizing up through total panic. One of my favourite books is Dune and there's a great little litany that the main character uses to ward off fear, which I run through my head when I get to a sticky rock climbing move:
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me and when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain
We abseiled off the back of the tower and then proceeded up to the summit. There was mixed ground with scrambling snowy arêtes and the last 75 metres was a 40° snow slope. We topped out at 4,985m. We graded the route at AD. Again a fantastic view. VIEW LOCATION
I had been at the back end of the rope on the way up, so I led us down – which was OK apart from when we were scrambling around the rock tower at which point my legs turned to jelly whenever I had to ascend.
It was a long slog in foot-deep powder back to ABC1. When I got back to camp, I took off my harness and crampons and sat on my rucksack absolutely exhausted. Vladimir had made some soup, so I sat on my rucksack for about 15 minutes trying not to pass out. The soup revived me a little. I slowly put all my stuff away and went to bed at three o'clock. I slept for a couple of hours by which time Vladimir had made a kind of sloppy omelette for dinner.
As it went dark, it was snowing on and off. Simon picked up the job of melting snow and washing up our plates. When I say washing up, it was more like getting the big bits off – the dirty water was starting to freeze almost immediately.
Simon is planning to go down to Base Camp tomorrow with the Sherpas – a combination of being sick of life at ABC1 and wanting to go for some trekking with Jackie who’s still down at Base Camp.
I've just had a chat with Adrian who has his eye on an unclimbed peak (about 5,500 metres) on the Central Trebutzes. I’ve told him that my legs are very tired and that I’d like an easy day tomorrow. He says if the weather is OK then perhaps we’ll go on an exploratory look at a possible route. I’m at a pretty low ebb at the moment and tempted to go down to the “luxury” of Base Camp. If the weather holds then we could be up here for other 5, 6 or 7 days. I don’t know if I can take that.
The guides keep their plans to themselves. I guess that is fair enough because so much depends on the weather. It is apparent that Grand Poohbah is far too difficult in these weather conditions. Looking at it from the top of Pik Judith-Brian, the planned route would involve a hard climb to two unclimbed peaks and then a technical climb to the top. It would take two days with an overnight near the two unclimbed peaks. I also guess that we are not going to set up an ABC2 in the next valley – the descent looks very steep and the glacier is very crevassed and heavily covered with snow.
My back and hips ache and I'm constantly dehydrated - it's a real effort to get dressed go for a pee and then back to bed …
10 September 2008 Advanced Base Camp, Kotur Glacier, Kyrgyzstan
It was a windy night with snow – mostly very fine powder that drifted around the tents. It was surprisingly warm – I had to take off my long-johns as well as my thick socks. I had a bit of a panic attack in the middle of the night because I woke up far, far too hot and the bloody zip on my sleeping bag had jammed.
It was still windy when we were called for porridge – I refused the kind offer and had some “President” cheese and dry bread instead. I had to clear the snow from the grub/kit tent to get at the bread and sat there slowly munching away all by myself.
The sun arrived, but the wind was still about 15 knots and blowing spindrift about. Pat announced a “slack” day to see how the weather panned out and possibly do an exploratory walk to look at an approach for this unclimbed peak.
Vladimir left at about half past eight heading for Base Camp with Simon and Steve in tow. Vladimir needs to repair one of his boots because the sole has come away; Simon is going back for the luxury and Steve is going down because he wants to do something other than sitting about. He plans to come back up with Vladimir tomorrow - is he mad or what?.
Once Simon had gone, I organised the tent and made a cup of tea. I found a few biscuits and had them with my tea. I defrosted my wet wipes (yes, they'd frozen) and wiped various parts of my body, then sprayed myself and my smelly clothes with the small can of deodorant that I lugged up here. By ten o'clock, the sun was shining, the wind appears to be dropping and I was very happy sitting in my own space – sharing a tent with Simon and his huge sleeping bag was becoming tiring.
I pondered that this “slack” day was going to work out well for me and give my poor old body chance to recover.
A week before we left the UK, I went to see my doctor to get a holiday travel jab and the he took my blood pressure – it was 160/100. He wanted me to start taking medication because my blood pressure had been getting worse over the past three years. The drug he prescribed was Amlopodine.
I checked on the internet and found an article on the “Effect of Amlopodine on Mountaineers”. It was interesting because the drug has been found to be effective in reducing altitude sickness, but one of the side effects that they found was an increase in “breathlessness” which got me a bit worried. I had an email conversation with Anthony who didn't think that it would be a problem. (This advice was after a disclaimer that he wasn't fully qualified).
After a week of taking Amlopodine, my blood pressure dropped to 150/90, which was good, but I was now uncertain whether it was the altitude, lack of caloric intake or the Amlopodine tablets that were causing me to struggle.
By eleven o'clock, the wind had picked up again and there was no sign of movement from the guides. Gareth and Anthony started a project building an elaborate snow hole. They first built a new luxury toilet and then started digging down into the glacier. Anthony was underground digging out a room – the floor was about 5 foot down and Gareth was standing in the entrance clearing the ice that Anthony was chopping out. Raving mad!
We gathered for lunch and had tinned fish, bread and soup – it was still snowing, so Pat and Adrian decided that we'll remain at ABC1 and climb from here. They don’t want to go back down to Base Camp unless we really need to because it's so far away. There wasn't much to do for the rest of the day apart from read, sleep and make the odd cup of tea.
At five o'clock, everyone gathered in the red tent for a glass of vodka and a chat, then wandered back to their own tents (and back into sleeping bags) while dinner was prepared. An hour later, we had a brilliant mutton stew, then back to our own tents.
It’s a real blizzard out there now; driving snow and gusting winds - it's large flakes not light powder. I'm tucked up in my sleeping bag ready for a long night, but I feel pretty good – let’s see what tomorrow brings…
11 September 2008 Advanced Base Camp, Kotur Glacier, Kyrgyzstan
I had a very restless night. It was windy and snowing all night. Also, the ground under the tent has now gone pretty soft ,so I tried to mould it with a depression for my hip – it was OK in one position, but crap in all others …
I woke up at seven o'clock, thinking very negative thoughts. I worked out that we'll have to leave Base Camp on the 16th to get back to Bishkek on 18th and fly out on 20th. That leaves us with four climbing days excluding the walk down. Today looks like it's blown out and, with this amount of snow, all of the routes will be avalanche prone for at least two days. So that means that if the weather get better later today and stays blue skies for three days, then we will get one chance for a decent peak and that will be on the 14th only.
Should we abort now and go down to Base Camp? We could then go somewhere else and have four productive days – may be do some rock climbing.
Factored into all of this, I realised that I don’t like all this hanging about in tents in freezing conditions. It's very miserable and uncomfortable living in a small two-man tent. My body aches, I'm filthy, the food is very basic and I'm not eating enough. I've decided that I don’t like expedition life – I'm too used to creature comforts – climbing in the Alps and staying in huts with nice three course meals is rough enough for me…
If Pat and Adrian are going to stay up here, then should I call it a day and go back down to Base Camp with the Sherpas, who I expect will be coming up today?
I thought through the various possibilities and eventually decided that I'm never going to go on an expedition like this ever again. Therefore, I should continue to go with the “flow” – the misery of four more nights at ABC can be endured and it would be great to climb the 5,200 metre unclimbed peak.
I got up at nine o'clock and had four slices of stale bread and cheese for breakfast. I melted snow for my water bottle and boiled up some more to wash up my plate and make a cup of tea. (I never seem to be able to get the plate clean without washing up liquid). This all took until about ten o'clock.
Everyone was hanging around outside because the weather was sunny, even though it was snowing. I asked Pat what the plan was. He said that we would give it one more day – which is what I thought. We all stood about chatting – Hyperactive Gareth meanwhile set about carving a seating area out the snow...
Pat and Adrian wandered off and had a quiet chat, then Pat asked everyone to gather together to have a talk about our plans. We all sat in Gareth’s magnificent seating area while Pat ran through our options:
1. The weather doesn't look good, but if it improves soon, we have a chance of climbing a peak
2. Go down now and go somewhere else, possibilities being more mountaineering in the At-Bashy range which might have better weather being lower or go rock climbing in a limestone area that he knows.
He asked for comments. Quick as a flash, I said that even if the weather clears today, the slopes will be loaded with snow and un-climbable for two days – that only gives us one day for an attempt. I said that I would prefer to go down and do something else with our remaining time. Everyone else thought similar things, so Pat decided that we would go down straight away. (It was interesting that the way that Pat phrased our options - he obviously didn't want to tell us what to do and possibly have one or two disgruntled clients who only wanted to attempt unclimbed peaks - which is what the expedition is all about!)
Result! We packed up all our own kit and all of the tents apart from one. This tent was loaded up with the remaining gear to be collected by Sherpas later.
We set off just before noon, roped up, walking down through 12-18 inches of soft snow. Adrian, Anthony and I set off first and as usual Adrian set a fast pace, only slowing at places where it looked like there were crevasses. Anthony was at the back of the team and was the first person to fall into a crevasse. He went into one that Adrian had already "cleared", so got a bit of stick from Adrian. About 3 minutes later, I dropped into one that Adrian had walked over. I went in up to my chest and it was a struggle to get out – I was breathing very heavily by the time I’d scrabbled out.
We met Vladimir, Steve and two Sherpas coming up – they waited for us when they saw us coming down. The two Sherpas dumped their loads and we put tents and heavy gear onto this pile and left it there. (I kept my tent because I thought it might take a while and I’d rather carry 4 kg extra and have my “home” in Base Camp).
The two Sherpas were then sent up to ABC1 to get the gear that we had left there. The plan was to get the other two to pick up the gear left on the glacier. We carried on down, arriving at Base Camp about three o'clock. It was bloody hard work in the soft snow with a very heavy pack. The final 40 minutes over the Moraine nearly killed me.
Simon helped me put up my tent. I was exhausted – I’d only eaten four slices of bread and a few dried apricots all day. As soon as I’d pitched my tent and stored my gear, I went to the grub tent and had some slices of water melon (and a couple glasses of vodka). Olga had heated some water for washing - I was one of the first there to grab a bucket and wandered down to the stream for a strip down wash. Once again, it started to snow before I'd finished, so it was a mad dash to take the bucket back and dive into my sleeping bag, where I wolfed down two mini Mars bars and crashed out for an hour.
We were called to dinner at half past six for mutton and rice, some more vodka and tea. The highlight of the banter after dinner was Anthony giving Pat the "Spanish Inquisition" about his Vice Presidency of the British Mountaineering Council, insinuating that it was an "Old Boys Club". He then started to ask Pat about his OBE at which point Pat declined to say any more...
By half past seven, the four Sherpas hadn't arrived back and everyone was getting concerned. Vladimir insisted that he wasn't expecting them for another hour. Just after half past eight, Vladimir, Pat and Adrian and went to look for them. Fortunately, they found them 15 minutes later, all four together coming across the moraine. These Sherpas are young lads, fit but inadequately equipped – is it our responsibility or Vladimir’s?
The plan is to go to a rock climbing place tomorrow – I can’t wait …
12 September 2008 Advanced Base Camp to Arashau, Kyrgyzstan
It was pretty cold for the first half of the night – there was a fantastic clear, starry night when we went to bed, but it got warmer when it started to snow - we woke up to about 3" of snow, so it's was a good decision to come down - we'd be socked in up there. It's a pity that the weather was against us, but at least we managed to climb one 5,000 metre peak.
By nine o'clock, the camp had been dismantled and we were on our way to the Son-Kul Canyon to go rock climbing. The second half of this trip report will be published at a later date.