Camp Three

Broken message…   which is particularly difficult at that extreme altitude just below 19,000 feet, and even more if you have a large pack. Most people use ascenders and jumar up these sections, but where is the fun in that? I use a mini traxion as a backup and climb them. My goal in general is not to pull on the fixed lines, but to use them only as a safety backup and for descending. I met the Austrians coming down, 5 young men and a young woman, they have been trying to establish the line to camp three and above for days. They said the ice is very hard and steep. Ice Climbing, swinging the ice axe and kicking crampons into ice is strenuous at normal elevations, at 21 and 22,000 feet it requires superhuman effort. So I am at camp two going up to camp three to see what all the fuss is about.

Leaving camp two and starting back up the mountain there was loose rock, snow, fantastic icicles and tangle of ropes, mangled snow pickets, pitons, all wound around the mountain like the harpoon lines wound around Moby Dick. The rock is loose and treacherous and I must pick each step carefully, and like the whale white, as I get higher the rock gets more solid and steeper and soon I am actually climbing, pitch after pitch of white and grey granite with veins of ice. I climb around and up a huge pinnacle that skirts a band of snow, as predicted the weather is clouding up. I am climbing with waterproof climbing gloves and making amazing moves that no one will ever see, eschewing the ascender except for one completely blank spot. Not far from camp three the weather suddenly gets colder, I put my balaclava on take off the glacier glasses and decide it is time to start down, after descending a few pitches the wind picks up and it starts to snow. Then I hear a huge clap of thunder, it is not supposed to lightning and snow at the same time is it? The snow is blowing sideways and I remember that lightning likes metal, I anchor the side wall put my ice tools inside my pack along with every other piece of metal except the figure eight I am rapping with, put on my expedition parka, very yellow, and continue down through the Himalayan blizzard... Concentrate, concentrate, do not drop the figure eight, and anchor in at the end of each pitch. the skinny ropes are icy and fast, hard to control but eventually  I am back at camp two, and the sun is shining... I don' have a sleeping bag but I do have enough down including the whole body suit Nima gave Tom. But something tells me I better make the descent to camp one, even though it is clear, I can see lightning over the distant mountains. So I put on the down pants and bib that Chelsea and Adam ordered for me at Christmas, pack up my ice tools, put on the mountaineering boots to keep my feet warm and begin the long descent to camp one, using icy frozen ropes. I am exhausted before I begin and keep wanting to just stop and stare into space, and I am slow because the rock is slick with snow and the boots are clumsy on this terrain. Well after dark I arrive at camp one. I can barely move.

Sunday morning. Last night it rained and thundered for hours, the lightning was very close. I thought, ok, the lightning will hit the tent poles and travel in to the ground and I am on the nice inflatable pad and will be safe. But now I awake to a very familiar situation: I am completely alone at camp one and buried in snow.