Where shall one go? Not DOWN!

Well its a far more relevant question than it may appear. After spending the first part of the summer accomplishing less than zero in Pakistan one might ask whats next? Well it will be two independently done MRI scans a possible operation or two and then "rehab". What's next????? What can be done before X-mas in terms of climbing? A few options seams viable as far as climbing is concerned and as long as they don't involve any descents! YES you got it wright NO descents my knees simply cant take any more gravel walking so from now on I will go CLIMBING, not walking. I know that will exclude quite a few nice routes but that's the price I have to pay for this summers adventure.

In a few weeks I guess I will know more about what I can do and what's off limits but I have to get some thing done, so I have looked at Divine Providence (ignoring the decent) and I think I got ideal partners. A Big Wall should be ideal so why not have a go at Zenyatta Mondatta? An exercise like that might come in handy as preparation for this winter or next summer. Then The Young Spider in October before an operation if that's what it will take to get back descending gravel . Ueli Steck told me its SOLID M7 and bad protection so it my become crystal clear to me why this great line is still lacking a repeat from an outside team (as Ueli is the only one who has repeated his own route in winter...).

My knee is actually quite "ok" as long as I don't walk down hill on gravel or rocks. With crampons I do ok, I think... But I will need a few weeks rest and if I'm lucky that will give me some time to get strong again in my fingers. I should do well on sport climbing now as I have lost a bit of fat in due time we will know.

Pakistan...

One is not getting that exited by reading the news flow on http://www.mounteverest.net as no one is moving any where. I was sad to reed that the Portuguese climbers Daniela and Paulo failed on G VI they where truly super nice and a summit would have been a well deserved token for them. I hope to see them in the Alps this winter.

Summit push on G3!!!!!!

I just arrived in Islamabad after having been evacuated with a knee injury by the "Fearless Five" a helicopter unit of the Pakistani Army. Don, Bruce, Billy and Guy are at 7300 meters on a attempt to do a new route up G3 from the NW. If the weather stays good my four remaining expedition friends will go for the summit at midnight Pakistani time. If they summit they will be the third or fourth expedition ever to summit G3 and it will be the second route up G3. I wish the guys the best of luck and I will pray for them all night.

I also like to send my regards and best wishes to Philippe Gatta on G1/G2, the Steck family (dude ski with care...), David Hamilton, the Junkies leader Mr Crumpton, and the Portuguese team on G6. All of you be safe and push hard.

PS

Also good luck to Maxout and Vasily who I meet on there way to K2.

ds

Management meeting at 5000 meter

I attended the Big Expeditions fixed rope meeting today in BC and it was like a comedy for the clueless. The proposition from the Big Boys on the strip is that every team member has to pay to use the fixed ropes going from camp one to the summit on G2. The price is 150 USD or the equivalent in gear, meaning snow stakes or rope.

I went over to listen for pure entertainment reasons as this might well be a once in a life time thing for me. I can’t really see myself going back to a mountain where I have to share parts of it with a bunch of commercial expeditions (well with one possible exception). The issue of payment is kind of stupid in my opinion. If you are a commercial outfitter bringing clients to a mountain where they have little or nothing to do its your problem. If the clients can’t get up or down without the assistance of fixed ropes and they have been sold a mountain holiday to 8000 meters, then it’s the sole responsibility of the outfitter to make sure he delivers. But hey no! They are asking all the other teams to share that cost in some lame form of socialism.

Okay the small teams are piggy backing on the bigger teams, but that’s tough shit for the Big Boys. Live with it and get on with it. The only interesting issue that came up was brought forward by a member of a small Spanish team as he asked what the Big Guys would do if an independent climber got stranded. The issue was not really penetrated but a vague consensus was to be responsible and help out. The only one who gave a straight answer was Phil Cramton from Altitude Junkies as he said he would help out no matter what. I can only wish them the best of luck and pray they all get up and down safe.

Base Camp sucks

Well every single expedition to G1, G2, G3, G4 and G6 are now stuck in Base Camp as a storm is passing through the area for the next 5 days. Lots of snow is expected between 7000 and 8000 meters so this will make for interesting conditions going forward. The next time we hit the slopes we will go for a summit push on one or two of our different options. As I have said a hundred times; condition determines the objective not the ambitions so we will see what we end up trying to do.

Now we are at a phase of the expedition where luck and timing will be critical to getting anything done and we all know it’s impossible to beat the house so it will be interesting to see what we can come out with in the end.

Talking about different phases one goes through on an expedition. There is the talk about food, there are the jokes, the stories, the sex talk and then food again but the one topic that is hardest to deal with is climbing stories. Being a climber on a climbing trip not doing any climbing for weeks is outright suffering. This whole acclimatisation process and approach to the bottom of the face sucks. My next trip has to be to a mountain where the approach is limited to 45 minutes and where you can do some recreational climbing from BC while waiting for the real deal.

The Undisputed king of the strip!

We all know that Ueli Steck is not just a great climber and fellow alpinist but he is also a leading example for the HAP:s and sherpas on G2 as he expressed up to camp 2 providing the hard working guys with a trail. It is frankly quite unreal to see him in action and to quote his Liaison Officer, "Damn fit man"...

BC and the upper camps are nowhere near what it was a week ago. It’s crowded and some teams are less concerned with human waist management than others. I guess that some teams are betting it will just blow away and hope its not hitting fellow climbers.

The other day we got a Google alert telling us that our team had fixed the route to camp one... That is as far from reality as one can come, but thanks for the recognition for our trail braking. That will be the day when we provide fixed ropes. One is inclined to think this was a Freudian slip from one of the commercial teams, but who knows.

One issue is weather forecasts, or the lack of them or the lack of a general conclusion. The more forecasts we look at the less we learn. The big downside is that when we try to plan our climbing (approach so far) according to the forecasts, it tends to fuck up and be all wrong. Maybe the days where better, when the sky was the forecast and not internet.

I still have no climbing action to report and so far all our hard work at altitude have paid little dividend in terms of real climbing action. There is no doubt that this is a snowy year and so far the whether has been fairly unstable witch is hard if you are trying to accomplish anything in alpine style. I guess at the end of the day there is a breaking point when one have to decide if the summit is the goal or if it is the style.

Frustration, pee bottle and wild invasion

I'm kind of glad that my memory has failed me so good since the last time I was in Karakorum as it makes no sense at all to go off and spend about 2 mouths trying to climb one route that is a bout 1000 meters or if super lucky two routes. The game has changed quite a bite since last time around (1991) and I have to say I'm positively surprised over how smooth expeditions run these days. What really has made a good impression on me is the food. As I remember expedition-life it was all about NOT eating one single good meal until you touched down on home soil after weeks of chapatti, rice and dal. Then we have the technology revolution that is truly the most notable change from my previous experience. Now we carry light satellite phones and laptops. We can surf the net as we please and if someone wants he can look at his Facebook page or get confused by looking at a number of different weather sites. It’s quite unreal but very comfortable and cool.

It’s nice to be back after such a long absence, but the lack of climbing meters per day spent on the expedition is definitely a turn off. And adding to the frustration is the mandatory infections one seems to catch whatever precautions one take. Since arriving in BC I have had a constant infection preventing me from adding much value to the expedition and that’s not good for my moral and acclimatisation. Adding to the high-tech life at plus 5000 meters we are subscribing to an excellent medical service from www.ifremmont.com. They are available for us 24/7 to answer any medical questions we have and advise on treatment. We just call them on our sat phone and we have an expert on high altitude medicine on the other line. All the doctors at Ifremmont have expedition experience as well as all being qualified UIAGM Guides so they understand both the medical side of our situation as well as the climbing side. They also know what medication we are carrying so it’s simple for them to give us accurate advice.

Expedition is not so much about climbing as it is about timing, hard slogging and endless waiting for a window when you are not ill and the forecast looks good to go. Since I kind of suck at all of the key factors you need to be good at in order to succeed in this game, well apart from getting overly exited about every single unclimbed face I see, I struggle a bit with the motivation. I'm lucky that my partners are all more patient. To be honest it’s not a booth camp so I'd better get on with the slogging and try to get in position for some action as soon as I have recovered from my obnoxious infection.

My son's drawing, me and Bruce Normandn>

Pee Bottle...
One thing that few mention in relation to going on an expedition is the sad fact that the single most annoying thing of it all is the constant need for a pee. I think a fair estimation is that you spend about one third of a day managing your pee strategy. This includes the notorious pee bottle. DONT MIX IT WITH YOUR DRINK BOTTLES. In order to acclimatise and stay away from altitude related illnesses you need to constantly hydrate. And the simple consequence of the endless hydration is endless peeing and there is no off button once you are all comfortable and warm in your sleeping bag. The pee alarm seems to be an uncontrollable factor. The other night I woke up kind of tired at 3.34 am with an urgent need for a pee. I crawl out of my sleeping bag and manage to find my frozen pee bottle but I didn’t notice that it was filled to one third, so finally when I can relax and let it flow I see to my horror that it will overfill if I don’t interrupt in about 3 seconds. What to do? I'm inside my tent and there is no escape so I have to try to stop the flow manually and empty the bottle outside my tent. In this wild fight against nature I manage to spill out half of the bottle while zipping up my tent.... It smelled like a public urinal at a train station so I was first up that morning and after a few hours cleaning, life was back to normal except for the endless need for a pee.

Wild invasion
We arrived first at BC and life was quiet. When we dropped down to BC the other day BC was filled with new expeditions. Its quite funny looking at all people gathered in BC as the differences is huge. I can’t really understand how all these different types, styles, ambitions etc are going to find a common way to be on the same mountain. We got super alpinist Ueli Steck on a honey moon doing G2 with his wife, we got commercial expeditions going through there fixed ropes, we got Phillip Gatta who just did a 8b before leaving for his G1, G2 and Broad Peak attempts and then we have the odd small team going for alpine style attempts. I just hope all will be safe. Our team (not me) have done all the other expeditions a huge favour opening the trail to camp one so we hope to collect a trail fee in form of some beers or vodka but so far it looks dry in BC so I guess we have to settle for the great cake the Amical team gave us as thanks guys for opening the trail. I guess there will be about 150 people on the strip when all teams are in place so it will be a busy place.

I hope to be back with some more interesting news as time goes on and we progress up towards the start of our climb at 7000 meters. It will for sure be one hell of a battle just to get to the start of the actual climbing as the vertical as well as the horizontal distance is endlessly long and tiring. As for now, over and out from BC at 5050 meters in Norther Pakistan.