9 Nov (part 2) - preparing for the final ascent

1 year of planning, intense training, triathlon, gym, weight training with my trainer Derek, to be in best possible shape, a charity for raising money for Nepal, great support from friends and family, almost 3 weeks on the mountain and the day has finally arrived.

You know the feeling when you have been longing for something, for an event or special moment that is supposed to happen on a certain date, and when the date finally appears you feel amazed that it's already here. That's how I feel today.

I am seating with Xavier in the tent, right next to us to our left are Glenn and Chris, our tents are roped in together, a little further to our right is Florence's tent. We are all quiet, napping or resting with our own thoughts, our own objectives stirring our brains up.

Originally my objective was to summit with my friends and celebrate on top of the mountain. This has changed over the past 3 weeks and my objective is now to give my best. I was challenged by Chris' vision of mountain climbing. He told us that we could celebrate if we got to camp 3, is hard enough to survive at 6200m, breathe, eat and function properly and keep a sane mind. So if we got here, we could be proud and happy of ourselves. Leaving camp 3 for the attempt would be another success and summit should remain a 'bonus' but not the ultimate goal. We are too insignificant compared to the mountain, the weather, the cold and all the other possible outcomes to focus only on summit. Summit should not become an obsession but a reward and a quiet, calm, intense and deep pleasure. A pleasure granted by nature and not within our human control.

Xavier is napping when Chris enters our tent. It's summit briefing time. Our ears are wide open, we do not want to miss one word from Chris, every detail will play a role in the success of the final push.

Chris confirms that Xavier and I will climb together as a team with Purba Sherpa and Junga (aspiring Sherpa aka base camp manager). We will wake up at midnight, get ready and leave at 1am sharp all geared up for the climb. The 4 of us will be on 1 rope. Chris warns us to expect the worse, toughest day of or lives, push beyond our limits and fight our thoughts of failure, we will be zombies climbing up the mountain, the temperature will be extremely cold and we can expect around -30 celcius. We listen quietly and do not utter a word.

The gear recommended:

Bottom: long underwear, primaloft pants, goretex climbing pants on top

Top: merino tshirt, fleece, heavy duty climbin down jacket

Hands: silk liner gloves, heavy duty summit mittens, poles and 1 ice axe

Feet: smartwool unused socks, possibly feet warmer activated prior to putting on boots, heavy duty climbing boots (La Sportiva 8000 for Xav, Millet Everest for me)

We comment on the gear and after a few questions Xav and I look at each other with puzzlement, the time has come for the final push.

Meanwhile, Purba and Lakpa Sherpa are on the mountain at 7000m by now, fixing the ropes that we will hook onto with our jumars and slowly pull ourselves up the north face of Himlung.

Schedule of the afternoon:

2-4pm: rest

4-5pm: pack our summit bags (emergency blanket, spare gloves, radio, food, water)

5-6pm: boil water, eat something

6pm: must get in sleeping bags and sleep

12am: wake up, get dressed

We follow the plan and are in bed by 6pm. Sleeping bag is filled with all the summit gear to keep it warm until

Midnight: inner boots, socks, hat, neck warmer, pants, mittens make for an uncomfortable sleep but it's necessary to fight the cold later tonight.

We drift into semi-sleep, in the back of my mind I know that 6 hours from now I will have to wake up and find the ultimate motivation to get going in freezing temperature and darkness. I drift and fall asleep. 

9 Nov (part 1) - short walk to camp 3, pressure mounting

On this early morning, the clouds float at around 5000 meters. They are far under us at 6000 meter camp 2 and it makes for a beautiful scenery. From our tent (proper altitude tent this time), we can see perfectly Manasulu scrapping the sky at more than 8000 meters as well as Annapurna, made famous by Maurice Herzog's first ever 8000m conquest during the last century. It takes me a few minutes to get back to reality as my mind is climbing Manasulu. At over 6000 meters, the brain focuses differently and it take more efforts to do anything and find the will to get out of your sleeping bag, get the day going, turn snow into water and the likes.

Today is a big day, we are moving to camp 2 and there is no turning back. Camp 2 is being dismantled by the Sherpas to use the tents at camp 3. The departure is delayed by all the extra dismantling work but by 930 or 10 we are on the way roped in with Chris this time. It's a short way to camp 3, the furthest point on the mountain where a camp can be established.

For our summit bid, we have agreed to set up the camp 3 even if the short distance between camp 2 could justify skipping it and trying for the summit straight from camp 2. It seems to be done by some expedition. But setting up 1 more camp has many benefits. First, it's a short distance from camp 2 so we will arrive very soon and can rest the entire day, a huge plus before summit attempt day. Then, it's more time to acclimatise as camp 3 lies at 6200 meters. It's also 2 hours closer to the summit than camp 2 and any little bit will help. And finally, we have by yet been to camp 3 so it's worth staying there 1 night and preparing for summit.

We are just in between camp 2 and 3 when we see that the path in the snow has been totally erased by a locomotive-sized blue ice boulder fallen from the hanging glacier to our left. It is beautiful, magnificent and frightening at the same time. The thought of being literally flattened by another similar one crosses all our minds. Chris turns around and asks us to unscrew the safety of our carabiners so we can unclip, un-rope and run for our life if another ice chunk were to fall. The thought of un-clipping from safety, throwing aside a 15kg backpack and running with crampons for dear life at 6100m altitude is somewhat hard to grasp. At this altitude, my mind seems to treat this thought as too random to waste energy focusing on. Once we have unscrewed our carabiners safety pin, we hastily proceed to crossing this doomed section.

Arrived at camp 3. We rest and prep for summit bid.

8 Nov - step 2 of summit bid, objective camp 2

I slept fine surprising myself for not feeling the slightest headache at such high altitude. I open the door to the outside world and see beautiful weather, blue skies and sun slowly coming down to our camp 1. The period between 6-7am when we wake up and 8-830am when the sun hits the camp always feels extremely long. The sun is priceless in the mountains. It warms you, melts the tent frost, dries our sleeping bags and gives us courage to keep going. All these simple things that we take for granted in our daily life have unimaginable importance at high altitude in the Himalayas.

View of Camp 1. If you follow a line straight up over the middle green tent, that's the way to camp 2

Xavier inside what Glenn has officially named: the 'Forest Tent', perfect for sea level overnight with your dog

(Routine: snow, water, food, packing - and sometimes trying to do your private business with no trees to hide behind, no shovels, bum freezing at -15 degrees and signs of snow leopard paws in the snow around camp 1, makes for a peculiar experience)

Junga, one of our sherpas / base camp manager, peeking outside the tent at Camp 1

We get going around 930am. Florence is gone already. Didn't want to wait for us to get ready and get cold. It's her call. 

We immediately hit the steep rocky slope leading to the hanging glacier and what we call crampon point. This is where we left our crampons a few days back on the way down. There are no other expeditions on the mountain so it's safe. The mountain is ours, we are lucky!

Around 2 hours of steep climb and we reach crampon point. Florence has been there for the past hour and is pissed to be still waiting for a Sherpa to rope in and get on with the hanging glacier climb. She thought the Sherpa would follow closely but I guess it was miscommunication with them as they are behind walking with Glenn. Xav gives Florence a piece of his mind, I second him and by the time the Sherpas and Glenn catch up with us, we are in the middle of a heated argument with Florence, not a good thing at 6000m where you need to focus. She takes off with Ong Shu Sherpa.

Glenn has caught up and we rope in all together with Junga, put on our crampons, down a chocolate bar for energy and step onto the glacier.

Ben on the Glacier leading to Camp 2

This bit of climbing is almost mysterious. Steep shiny icy slope covered with a mix of mud and small rocks. A 'treat' for our crampons. The 12-tooth yellow Grivel Sabertooth crampons of Xav and Glenn and my orange Petzl Vasak Leverlock bite in this compound gracefully, sometimes helped by some kicking to guarantee that we hit in the ice deeply enough. Then, it's all about evaluation and trust, you need to trust that the grip is there and keep going up. You are roped in with other members and whenever you stop you pull the rope, jerking the guy in front of you backwards and also forcing 3 more people to stop. It's about real teamwork, great patience for each other, respect and pace.

We proceed to higher grounds, the shapes and colors of the glacier are phenomenal: blue ice, black ice, hanging ice chunks, stalactites, and towering ridges around us. We feel small and humble in this magical decor.

We keep pushing and reach the snow covered glacier. It feels safe because is all covered in deep and soft looking snow but danger lures. The rope suddenly jerks and Xavier is down in the snow with part of his legs nowhere to be seen, he has walked on a snow bridge covering a crevasse and has fallen through! Thank good he does not panic, stays extremely calm and shouts to Junga: 'Junga! What do I do?' I am right behind him and advise him to slowly move his body to the safe edge. He does so and a minute later, all is well again. A bit of a scare for us but we keep pushing. It's steep and tiring, the weight of the backpacks starts to be painful but soon, we see some orange and yellow shapes, the tents are in view. In the meantime, Chris has caught up and passed us with Purba and Lakpa Sherpa and reached camp 2 all the way from base camp. We are glad to have our leader back.

We settle in for the few hours of remaining daylight and sleep under towering Himlung Himlal humbling us from its 7125m summit. I am overwhelmed by the feeling of unlimited respect for nature and our planet.

Garmin's view of our climb:

7 Nov - starting our summit attempt

Breakfast is served at 730am, we are aiming to leave base camp at 8am.

We all meet in the mess tent. Xav is pretty much done with his packing, Glenn seems to be as well, I feel a little behind in selecting the gear and what to take, what to leave behind. There is already stuff that we left at camp 2 and camp 1 so it would make sense that our packs  be lighter but it's nothing like that. After breakfast we pack in the remaining gear, my 70L mountain hardwear backpack is full to the brim. I have to push down the gear to close it, what have I taken that I shouldn't have? It might seem safer to take more but it's more to carry and at 6000m every extra kg counts and equals additional breathing, effort and fatigue after hours of climbing.

We are all out of our tents, zipping up the tent doors and saying goodbye to our base camp (relative) comfort for the next 4 to 5 days of pure mountain climbing.

Glenn wonders how his backpack got so big and full, Xav same and I approach the 2 guys trying to evaluate if my bag is lighter or heavier. We proceed to weighting each other's bags but they are all disappointedly the same, we are in for a tough day of carrying.

It is time to go and cross the glacier and moraine for the 5th time already. All of us totally dread this 5th crossing. The glacier is a boulder field, and a maze making it very hard to find the right path and the shortest distance to the other ridge. After 1h30 of zigzagging, we make it to the other side and start climbing the eroded ridge that will lead us to the path leading to camp 1. That bit is very steep and requires all of us waiting for each other to avoid triggering rock fall and risking injury to those further behind. Being close together is safety. It's all about safety and team work in the mountain and all 3 of us have the same mentality: we are here for each other, we are a team, friends and we need to always remember that. It's too easy to become selfish and do your own thing.

Unfortunately Chris, our western leader, is sick today and unable to join us for the climb. If he gets better, he will meet us tomorrow at camp 2 directly and cover 2 days in 1 with the remaining Sherpas resting at base camp.

5 hours later, we set foot at camp 1. The temperature has dropped significantly from the forst time we went to camp 1 and could hang out in t-shirt under the sun. Now it's too cold to stay outside too long, the day is coming to an end and we hastily start the late afternoon routine of unpacking, setting up the mattresses, packing clothes under the mattress to protect against the rocks sticking in. Camp 1 is set on rocks and not on snow so mattresses are essential to guarantee a good night of recovery sleep.

Only major issue at camp 1, as mentioned before, the tents are total crap. I wouldn't want one of these at sea level so imagine at 5500m camp 1. Xav and I both swear in our beards inside he tent at how shit they are, no storage, low ceiling, useless insulation...and that's after Xav spends nearly 1 hour kindly trying to improve the tent's setup, removing rocks, tightening the pegs and ropes, latching the roof properly. So

Maybe It sounds trivial to complain when we are already in a such a tough and 'not meant for human life' environment but tents are our survival pad for the night, our safety and our only zone of comfort for the next 18hours so when they are shit, it SUCKS for 18 hours and 18 hours of sucking is a bloody long time when you are in the mountains and its -10 in your tent. Good night!

6 Nov - rest day and anticipation

The pressure is slowly increasing. Today is our second rest day but we all know that tomorrow we start the final push.

We have to start packing tonight to make sure all the critical gear is in the bag without carrying too much. 1 item forgotten could compromise the summit push.

5 Nov - 40th birthday in the mountains!

Today is a rest day (as well as tomorrow) in order to recover from the past 3 days of very high altitude, and to build red blood cells, it's a critical step of the acclimatisation and an important milestone of the expedition.

I like the way Chris puts it: "your body has taken a hit at high altitude, and all its sensors are telling him that it needs to produce more red blood cells in order to operate better and manage oxygen better. You need do NOTHING, rest, lie in your tent, drink a lot of water and let it produce red blood cells that will help you for the final summit push". (And by the way Chris Harling, 43 years old, is no newbie, he summited Everest in 2007 and has been climbing for about 30 years )

(Chris with red fleece)

But equally important is the date of this rest day: Nov 5 and that's my birthday. I am going to celebrate my 40th in the mountains, what a treat and a unique place to change decade. Amazingly I wake up feeling as young as ever after a good 8-9 hours sleep. Glenn is the first to see me and wish me a happy bday followed by Florence, Chris and Xav over breakfast.

The day is absolutely amazing, blue sky and a view of Himlung which just take my breath away. I roll up the door of the mess tent just to be able to spend the entire breakfast contemplating the 7000m mountain that we are producing red blood cells for. It's a humbling moment, and I am close to life's true meaning, far from the city distractions and unimportant work issues that we are forced to believe are so important when we are in the thick of it.

The day goes by doing 'nothing'. And at dinner time I am treated to a nice cake from Rojan our Nepali chef and a nice bottle of sweet wine that Xav brought from Kathmandu on a mule's back and it survived the ordeal. First alcohol in 2 weeks and we all sip it delicately in our metal tea cups.

It's a late birthday night, I think I go to bed at 9pm! Almost 2 hours later than for the past 10 days...

Tomorrow is another rest day so I can fully recover and get ready for the final push.

4 Nov - Camp 2 to Base Camp, the long rocky way down

it's 9am and we are packing. The usual morning routine (by now you all know it): melt snow, drink hot, eat a freeze-dried porridge or cereal of your choice, freeze your ass when you get out of the 32 degree inner sleeping back to the outside -10 degree world in your undies and t-shirt, get dressed in 15 seconds with clothes that are cardboard hard by the cold, stuff your huge sleeping bag into a mini sea to summit compression bag (it takes some skills), pack your inflatable mattress, get out of the tent, clip on your crampons with your frozen hands - by now at 6000m camp 2 you are totally out of breath - but that's normal and you are used to it - when your overloaded backpack is packed, ice axe and poles in hand, hands covered by your -29 degree heavy duty black diamond guide gloves, you are ready to climb down for 6 hours to reach base camp. By the time this routine is done, at least 1h30 has gone by!

Yes, that's the life of the crazy boys that choose to go on a 3 week expedition. But the scenery, the atmosphere, the friendship between all of us, the adrenaline, the glaciers around us make it totally worth our while!

3 Nov - Mountaineering to Camp 2 - the real deal! - 5500m to 6100m

Today is the real deal. We wake up and start the morning routine of melting snow, preparing 'breakfast in a bag', eating, packing our huge down sleeping bags, stuffing our backpacks, dressing for the weather (sunny but cold).

We hit the slope for a 600m / 5 hours ascent. Ice axes are not required for now and stay on our backpacks. Crampons will be needed later and are hanging off the back of our packs. Xav and I walk in front with Chris, Glenn follows with junga. Florence hasn't slept for the nth night and Chris tells her to either stay st camp 1 or descent to Favor recovery.

It's time to put on the crampons to get on the hanging glacier that will take us to camp 2.  The slopes are getting steep. The real deal is now officially starting. Out of breath from putting the crampons we step onto old dark ice roped in Chris, Xavier and myself. All 12 teeth of the crampons do an amazing job keeping us on the slope. It's key to get as many teeth as possible in the ice and not only the front one. Cramponing is not rocket science but requires a little patience to get it right to guarantee safety.

We traverse some amazing scenery of hanging ice and snow, skip over crevasses too deep for the eye to see the bottom of them. It's fascinating, tiring and getting cold on the glacier. We have to stop briefly and layer up before we are frozen to the bone. The wind blows and the altitude guarantees cold winds. The -29C gloves come out of the bag in a hurry, the fleece is thrown over our goretex pro jackets. We keep climbing roped in with Chris, out of breath, approaching the 6000m barrier our garmin watches telling us how high we are. Suddenly: Tents on the horizon surrounded by glaciers and the towering himlung himal summit at 7125m above us. We have reached camp 2!

Our tent is on the side of a steep slope with a view that cannot be described for its beauty knows no words.

Glenn is about an hour behind. There has been a snafu with crampons and he does not have his own pair and therefore impossible to fit them on. He exchanged with junga and it works! But soon after their climb is stopped by a radio call from Florence who decided against Chris's advice to climb up for acclimatisation. She cannot cross the glacier without being roped in for safety and Glenn had to wait 45' in the snow on the glacier while Junga turns around to pick up Florence.

I walk towards Glenn, Junga and Florence to film their arrival at camp 2 without knowing that Florence has to turn around immediately to go down with junga before dark as she has left all her sleeping equipment at camp 1. It's a weird situation, Chris is concerned for safety, Florence upset by Chris' reaction and Glenn eager to arrive to his tent and settle after a long day. It's cold, windy and the water making routine starts over again. Xav and I eat and settle in for s cold -13C night in the tent. Poor Glenn spends one of the worst nights of his life freezing on the snow as his mattress is punctured and cannot insulate from the intense cold at 6100m.

2 Nov - Mountaineering to Camp 1 - 4900m to 5500m

9am start to camp 1. It's a long day of walking in altitude towards camp 1. I think I make it in 4:58' a little after Chris and just before Xavier and Glenn who follow around 20 minutes later. We all have our rhythm and pace and it's important to listen to our body in altitude. Small steps and little stopping to keep a constant pace and avoid the pains of restarting too often.

We are thrilled to be here but 1 of of us is missing and it sucks...(meanwhile Patrick is being treated in Kathmandu for altitude sickness).

We settle in our tents while the sun is still up. We boil water from snow, unfold our sleeping bags and mattresses, otherwise we would sleep on rocks and spoil a night of rest, these mattresses are essential for proper recovery.

The tent is super small and Xav and I struggle to fit all our stuff. These tents are what we will call later 'forest tents' no way they were designed for very high altitude. Glenn says they are good for 1 person and a dog that's it. 

We are at 5500m altitude, the acclimatisation process is officially started. The night is not so good, not a great sleep but we still manage to rest and partially recover.

An inspiring email from Lorraine

I want to share with you an inspiring letter from Lorraine. She has followed us from the beginning of this trip, supported our efforts, donated to our charity campaign and been cheering for us all along. Thank you so much for your support Lorraine!

-- 

Dear guys, 

I take this opportunity to congratulate you all on your efforts and attempt to scale this magnificent mountain peak. Whether you reached the summit or not, you can all be so proud of yourselves, as all your friends and loved ones are, at achieving your personal records and simply trying your best. And, besides the personal goals you had set for yourselves, you did something as a group, that was bigger than all of you as individuals - you banded together to campaign for a really worthy and humanitarian cause.

You also kept us spectators, engaged and cheering you on from the sidelines in Hk and Europe, all of us united with you in this big effort, at least in spirit. Our monetary contributions were a testament to you bringing this cause to our attention again, and even though we fell short of the target you had set, they can still touch someone's life and bring some comfort and cheer. That's priceless in my book, and could only have happened because of you.

So I salute you all, I congratulate you all and I am proud to know you through Ben's blogs and to have followed you on this unforgettable journey and adventure. And very importantly also, to have been a little part in supporting you to help the beautiful country and people of Nepal.

Congratulations again on your courage and generosity of spirit and actions - it is an inspiration to the rest of us and surely the best that mountaineering and trekking can inspire.

My very best to you all,

Lorraine

 

1 Nov - Rest day & Patrick helicopters back to KTM

Today is a very sad day for all our team as we are loosing Patrick. He has been sick for the past couple days and is helicoptered out of base camp to Kathmandu.

Patrick has been the coordination leader of our group of four guys, has done an awesome job liaising with Adv Peaks and sorting out many details or issues with Adv peaks. Patrick has been the connection between all the expedition members. He knew Glenn from his Mera peak climb in 2013 and I met Patrick through Lars (Cathay colleagues). So Patrick leaving is a hit to all of us and we will miss his jokes, outgoing spirit, talents for diplomacy dealing with organisational bumps along the way and his great friendship always ready to help out, share his knowledge of gear and mountain.

After the med-evac helicopter call in the morning, the day goes by expecting a roaring helicopter sound from the valley. We enjoy our last moments with Patrick who finds the energy to crack a few jokes despite his illness. Around 3pm a black 'Manang Air' helicopter lands close to base camp, the blades do not stop chopping the air, a few bags come out and a few gear bags are thrown in. we all say our goodbyes to Patrick, it's a very emotional moment, he runs to the helicopter and a few moments later they take off and disappear in the valley.

It's a quiet evening, dinner is served early. 

31 Oct - Mountaineering to Camp 1 - 4900m to 5500m

Beautiful day out, great dark blue skies. First section down the Moraine is tricky with a rope and icy slope. Then 2 hours to cross the moraine, which is very tricky, slippery and windy path.

Patrick leaves us at the end of the moraine, he is feeling sick and has had headaches for the past 2 days. The bad organisation of the expedition so far and the lack of help of the support team definitely does not help his spirits and the outlook of the trip. Patrick shares with Chris his disappointment with the support team's service and overall adventure peaks coordination and mentions that all of us have even raised the option of cutting short the trip if things do not improve and adv peak does not step up. We spent too much time coordinating, too much effort preparing and training and too much money to be treated with disinterest from the team, being left in the dark when something happens, porters deserting us because of the snow.

We have an amazing climb to camp 1, in snow, sometimes deep which slows us down drastically. Florence is leading most of the way. I catch up during one of her rest times with some Sherpas and then arrive first at camp 1 with Junga (base camp manager) followed closely by Florence, Chris, Xavier and Glenn. We are all amazed by the stunning scenery surrounding us. We empty our bags of the climbing gear this we will need later and have Carried all the way here; crampons, helmet, harness with karabiners & jumar, ice axe. 15 minutes break and we start to head down.

3 hours later we are back at base camp. We meet patrick who is unfortunately still feeling terrible and starting to consider leaving if his state does not improve. Plagued by headaches and lack of sleep the cold mountain quickly becomes a living nightmare. Chris puts him on oxygen to help alleviate the headache pressure and sickness. 

We have fun playing with the oxygen saturation device that we plug to our fingers. It's actually quite critical to have a reading of the oxygen saturation to see how the body adapts to altitude and copes with lack of oxygen. We are both around 80-88 saturation and 70-110 heart rate.

Before bed time Chris informs us that we'd better change the next day's program since we are all knackered by the climb. So tomorrow will be rest and producing red blood cells!

30 Oct - Base camp day 1 - Puja and training

Puja in the morning, the local Lama comes from Phu village with his assistant. After setting up the offerings around the altar, the lama starts singing the prayers. We are all gathered around, surrounded by 6-7000m mountains. It is surreal. The clouds and sun mix together in an atmosphere far from our own worlds. We listen patiently and take in all the foreign gestures and incantations of the Tibetan Buddhism. We have brought all our climbing gear to the altar, they are blessed one by one by an ointment, Purba, our head Sherpa and sirdar touches each and every piece of gear with this special ointment. The crampons, ice axes, helmets key to our safety and survival in the high altitude mountains are treated with this balm. It is fascinating to watch.

Ong Shu Sherpa ties a number of prayer flags to existing ones that are already hanging from the altar to the ground around us.

The assistant lama throws in the air the alcohol mixed with rice and tsampa while reciting some prayers. A few repeats of this gesture and we proceed to the closing of the ceremony. It is now time to share the offerings between all of us. Some alcohol, some cookies are past around, everybody shares the joy the Sherpas are loud and lough with us while sharing.

It is starting to snow again slightly. Chris, our climbing leader, has prepared a training session of Jumaring & abseiling (going down) practice before lunch. He fixed a rope on a slope next to the camp and we gather with our equipment and check our harnesses, jumar and figure 8 as well as safety slings. Then we get going up and down, switching from jumar to go up to figure 8 to go down until lunch time.