What is it with this place? As we sat out yet another snow-storm at Camp 1, the optimism from reaching Camp 2 soon gave way to a glum realisation that the weather could scupper our summit chances altogether. Our plan was to make a further load carry to Camp 2 and maybe spend a night there acclimatising. Instead, we were faced with the prospect of going back down to Base Camp. We learnt that teams higher up on the mountain had decided to retreat and abandon their summit attempts. This didn’t bode well. There were some really strong climbers up there.
After two days snowbound we eventually gave in to the inevitable and made the weary descent back to Base Camp. We were using up valuable resources by just sitting around at Camp 1. It’s psychologically tough too. There’s only so much reading or listening to music you can do, and the rest of the time you find yourself thinking a great deal about friends, family and loved ones – and just how much you miss them. My two tent mates, Tia and Dave, both broke down in tears at different times and proved that being on these big mountains is as much a mental game as anything else. We desecended amidst a blizzard and route-finding was difficult in the whiteout, as well as a little fraught. Yet despite this, I found it much easier in the colder conditions.
Of course, now down at Base Camp, the following day brought perfect weather with cloudless skies and more sunshine! Still, at least here we could re-group, re-energise and take a closer look at our options. We mulled over the decision to come down, but to be fair we really had no choice. The German team stopped by for a chat and one of them, Michael, announced that he’d had enough was heading home. He had reached 7,700m on his summit push a few days earlier but high winds and deep snow forced him back. He described the route from Camp 2 to Camp 3 as ‘relentless’, which only added to our growing sense of pessimism! And Michael, it turned out, had prepared for the expedition by cycling from Munich to Skardu!
The weather has proved a nightmare to predict, even with our comprehensive forecasts, and all the teams have been up and down the mountain like yo yo’s. But it does look like there is a good weather window opening up so we aim to make best use of it, just in case there isn’t another one! We will be moving up to Camp 1 again tomorrow and after a couple of days rest will probably launch a summit bid. This is a bit earlier than we might have liked from an acclimitisation point of view so it will not be easy, but we have to go for it. The plan is to slowly make our way up the mountain and stay a couple of nights at Camps 2 & 3 on the way. It means we will potentially be away from Base Camp for at least ten days, so unfortunately I won’t be able to write again until we are back. Maybe I’ll then have some good news…..Inshallah!
