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.
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