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...