Kongde Day 4

I woke up at 3:00 AM could have been 3:30, but for some reason Dano was not ready to go, probably working on the pressure cooker.  So I did inside the tent heating experiments  with my stove and electric shoe sole heating experiments and hand warming experiments.  The stars were amazing. It was cold.  I put on every layer I had left and we set out in the dark up the mountain.  I think it was around 4:30 or 5:00.

 It was a clear morning as we hiked up to high camp, an amazing place next to two large glacier lakes and below some steep rock cliffs with ice waterfalls on them that would come crashing down later in the day.   Occasionally two of the Kongde peaks came into view as we hiked in the thin air up a difficult rocky scree field. 

Dawn, we had already been climbing for a couple of hours.  Looking down at the lake, across the scree field of doom.

the ice waterfall

View from the top of our upward progress, 17,000 to 18,000 feet

 Dano said that this time last year, this area was  a snow field, much more easily traversed. It was breathtaking and beautiful and extremely difficult to make upward progress. I was wearing mountaineering boots, made for crampons and snow and ice.  I needed a light pair of approach shoes.  I led a couple of long chimney climbs toward a steep couloir. Then I belayed Dano up.  When we reached the top of the chimneys the rock was steeper and even more loose. 
Dano has climbed Mount Everest 10 times.  He is amazingly strong and very skilled in mountaineering, a excellent example of a climbing Sherpa.  He said it was too dangerous to continue up in these conditions, especially since we had to return all the way back to where Nima had set up an intermediate camp. 

 I was not quite ready to stop at this particular spot, so I asked him to wait while I climbed up to a large cornice, then around the cornice.  In the couloir the rock was loose and unstable.  Because it is so cold here at night, when there is enough snow, the slope consolidates into an easily climbed snow field, provided you have an ice axe and crampons. I had an ice axe, which I was using, but couloir was too loose to climb except extremely slowly.  The adjacent rock slabs could be more easily climbed, but to be safe they needed an aggressive approach shoe or rock shoe.  Finally, after reaching the edge of the couloir that leads up to the summit block, I realized that Dano was right. The conditions were too treacherous. 

So I returned back down, knocking rocks down left and right until I reached Dano and we determined to return down slowly.  The views were stunning but the down climbing was difficult in the heavy boots. In snow, we would have been down in minutes.  Instead it took hours to get back to the lakes, which were swimming in the swirling clouds like a magical place.  Returning down to the lakes

 Notice Dano is carrying pickets and other snow protection, for snow that was not there.

 Living in the clouds

Then we walked all the way back to our camp, which we reached around 2:30.  Another 9 or 10 hours of hiking above 15,000 feet.

 relaxing time, helmet is off, harness is off

this must be lunch

 looking down to the base camp area

Notice Pimba's proud pose

 Sonam, in blue, was especially kindly toward me after I gave up my Advil for him, he returned to the base camp the following afternoon, after he had gone down to regain some acclimatization. I think her is offering me some garlic soup.

We packed it up,  I changed shoes, and started the long hike down to the base of the valley, which we reached just before dark.  It had been12 or 13 hours of difficult hiking and climbing mostly above 14,000 feet.  The five Sherpas were camped under the overhanging rock, like a cave, building a smoky fire.  Pimba was chopping vegetables, potatoes and spicing up a wild curry mixture.  Usually when trekkers or mountaineers  hike with Sherpa guides and porters, they eat separately.  But now, we all had lunch and dinner together in the smoky cave, like a ghostly ancient brotherhood.  I ate whatever they cooked, even though I know they were making it extra spicy.  Pimba's main spice were the spice packets from Ramen packages. I think they were enjoying the camping trip.