Tuesday 28 Nov '06 – Camp 1 2700 mts

Wow! what a great sleep I had last night & boy did I need it. Only woke up at 12.00 & again it’s a beautiful day outside. Clear blue skies, only a gentle occasional breeze & about -7c. The sun doesn’t come around the mountain at this camp until 11.00am & until it does it’s cold in the tent & you’re not inclined to move. It was a very cold -25c last night outside & even dropped to about -7c inside the tent, but nestled in our bags it didn’t affect us.

Today is a rest day & we divide out the food’n’fuel to go to High Camp & generally prepare for the push onwards & upwards. In the afternoon we go through some crevice rescue drills & re-familiarise ourselves with the routines. We’ve all done this plenty of times before but it is important when you’re with a new group of people because different guides will operate in different ways & it’s good to go through the drill so that we’re aware of what we all have to do in the event of an incident. Little did we know what was to be thrown at us later by Antarctica’s Mother Nature who at this stage must have been looking down at us with a wry smirk on her mischievous face as we played our games in her backyard.

All of my gear & equipment is performing well & without any problems, which is fundamentally down to the detailed preparation I did before coming out here & the advise given & taken on board. My fleece lined Buffalo suit is a superb piece of kit & has made my Gore-Tex jacket redundant & relegated to the role of spare clothing. I’ve also yet to use any of my down clothing but then the temperatures haven’t dropped low enough yet. The Buffalo gear is superb & I’m literally living in it day in day out but it would be far too warm even for skiing in & is designed for Cold Climate use only. So a big ‘thank you’ to Roger Mear for his assistance in prepping me for this.

The weather at this early stage of the season is a complete contrast to last year when the early groups were hammered with bad weather on arrival at VBC, but no doubt we’ll get some of that as the days go on. ALE have a staff of 4 at VBC which includes a medic & a nurse (male). Two of this team operate as mountain rangers & have already been up the mountain ‘wanding’ the route & crevice areas. Wanding basically means placing short bamboo wands at sightable intervals along the designated route & at all crevices that can be located. This helps dramatically in reducing the danger particularly on days of bad visibility.

Incidentally the 2 young Swedish skiers had already summited & returned to VBC before we left there yesterday & were intending to have a rest day before going off to tackle other ski / climbs in the area. They left VBC 2200 mts, late on Sat evening, summited (4497 mts ) in the early hours of Mon, rested a few hours at High Camp 3700 mts on the decent & then got back to VBC mid day on Monday !! That is a phenomenal effort even if they were travelling on skis. Dan & Rex got to the summit a day later, stayed a night at High Camp on the decent & re-joined their group at Camp 1. Like the Swedes they left VBC immediately on arrival. Another huge achievement.

The 2 Slovenians departed a day after them & also achieved a very fast ascent & decent. It must be remembered that all 3 of these teams of 2 were fully acclimatised before arrival here but none the less, a great achievement by all.

My Sunnto watch / altimeter etc packed up today which I’m not happy about because when I’m on a trip I always like to know how long I’ve been out for & the current altitude so that I’m always aware of what’s still ahead. Plus I didn’t bring a spare one because Sunntos simply don’t break…….Shit !!..... F*** !.... Damm…….

Tomorrow he plan is to do a food’n’fuel carry & stash to High Camp 3700 mts & return to Camp 1. This is the normal routine & whilst it means going up the route on two consecutive days it is generally accepted that it is still easier than doing one huge carry. It also gives you an extra day of acclimatisation & follows the general rule of ‘climb high – sleep low’.

But……STOP PRESS…….at 1.00am Ian, following some discussions with some of the other guides who had returned from the day 1 carry up, decided that it may be a better tactic to do the carry in one huge day, then have a rest day at high camp before our summit attempt day. What did we think about that? Well, naturally we went for it because we felt fresh after our days rest & whilst we didn’t relish the thought of the huge carry, we said we’d give it a go.

Joyce would absolutely love it here & whilst she would be very capable of the long treks & even summiting, I fear the big heavy loads would her undoing. She has done plenty of Alpine 4000 mt peaks with me including Mt Blanc in one single push from the railway straight to the summit, but the physical effort required here is far greater than the Alps.
Sam who was with us on that great night on Mt Blanc as a 15 yrs old in 2003, could certainly buckle up & get on with the task.
Ian would prefer to take the helicopter up & either snow board or paraglide down. Maybe he’s right.

So to bed at 2.00am for a big day ahead.