Friday 26th June
June 28th, 2009 by Jake
Today was our turn to head on up the route, and let the others have a rest day to recharge after their hardwork the previous day. The previous evening, despite his exhaustion, Fabrizio had expressed some possible interest in coming back up with us (two days in a row!), but when we rechecked with him at 6am, the warmth and comfort of his sleeping bag made the decision for him!
So five of us, joined by Mahma (one of the HAPs - High Altitude Porters), left camp and wandered up the glacier towards the start of the route. We were extra aware of our route this time, not so much due to the avalanche runout danger, but from a new evil - streams and pond water! Yesterday 2 of the team on the way up to the start of the route had taken rather sudden and unplanned falls into the freezing water. One had to abandon his climb due to wet boots, and the other, who went in up to his waist spent the whole morning aiding the repatriation in wet underwear! We'd decided that the FTA K2 Swim team didn't need any more practice today, so it was with a certain amount of trepidation, and careful foot placement that we made our way to the gear stash. Once we arrived (dry - luckily!), we put on our harnesses and crampons, and loaded the remaining rope into our rucksacks and started up the lower slopes at around 7.30am. The first few hundred metres of ascent we unroped up a 30-40 degree snow slope, on which most of us just used trekking poles of convenience. We reached the start of the fixed rope at 8.30am, where we swapped our poles for axes, and clipped our ascenders onto the ropes. This was the line that Fabrizio had fixed the previous day, and followed the route that he had fixed twice before in previous seasons. Evidence of his (and others) fixing was still visible along much of the route, with old rope and gear at the anchors. The six of us were relatively spaced out, and climbed at our own speeds along the ropes. It was hard work for whoever had point, as they had to break trail through the snow (although it wasn't as hard as it would have been the previous day for the first team!). This section of the route, although technically not too tricky is steep - between 60 and 75 degrees for much of the way, other than a horizontal traverse over a steep gully section. The anchors were all piton fixed in rock sections, and seemed very secure. On the way up, we picked up some more of the rope that the team yesterday had left behind when they had come down, which meant that I had 400m of the stuff. However, I had minimal other kit, so my bag wasn't too heavy (the rope is about 3.5kg/100m). By about 11.30 we reached the top of the line, where Fabrizio had finished fixing the previous day. After one false start leading off with a section of rope which was too short, we started a new spool of Korean rope (200m), and the point man led off up a steep section, towards camp 1. At this point 2 of the team decided to dump their rope and head down, as the weather had really turned, and it was getting quite cold, especially with all the standing around waiting for the lead man to set up his anchors before we could follow up. The wind had picked up, and we were constantly assailed by flurries of spindrift which seemed to get everywhere! We stamped our feet and clapped our hands to keep the circulation flowing, and flexed our legs after standing in one position for too long to prevent them seizing up. Due to taking some of the rope from the others, I now had about 550m of rope on my back, which although wasn't too heavy, certainly threw my centre of balance off a little, and I had to be careful when I shifted around. We fixed another 120-150 metres, and actually mistakenly went straight past camp 1 without really noticing it there is literally room for 2 tents at a push! Once we decided that it was too cold to continue, we dumped all the rope that we had at the top anchor - around 1300m between us, and then abseiled back down the fixed rope as quickly as possible. As we got further down the route, the weather cleared up dramatically, and the unfixed section at the bottom was becoming quite slushy, which meant that you could almost jog down. We dumped our climbing gear at the gear stash and then headed back to BC - avoiding any puddles along the way!
So five of us, joined by Mahma (one of the HAPs - High Altitude Porters), left camp and wandered up the glacier towards the start of the route. We were extra aware of our route this time, not so much due to the avalanche runout danger, but from a new evil - streams and pond water! Yesterday 2 of the team on the way up to the start of the route had taken rather sudden and unplanned falls into the freezing water. One had to abandon his climb due to wet boots, and the other, who went in up to his waist spent the whole morning aiding the repatriation in wet underwear! We'd decided that the FTA K2 Swim team didn't need any more practice today, so it was with a certain amount of trepidation, and careful foot placement that we made our way to the gear stash. Once we arrived (dry - luckily!), we put on our harnesses and crampons, and loaded the remaining rope into our rucksacks and started up the lower slopes at around 7.30am. The first few hundred metres of ascent we unroped up a 30-40 degree snow slope, on which most of us just used trekking poles of convenience. We reached the start of the fixed rope at 8.30am, where we swapped our poles for axes, and clipped our ascenders onto the ropes. This was the line that Fabrizio had fixed the previous day, and followed the route that he had fixed twice before in previous seasons. Evidence of his (and others) fixing was still visible along much of the route, with old rope and gear at the anchors. The six of us were relatively spaced out, and climbed at our own speeds along the ropes. It was hard work for whoever had point, as they had to break trail through the snow (although it wasn't as hard as it would have been the previous day for the first team!). This section of the route, although technically not too tricky is steep - between 60 and 75 degrees for much of the way, other than a horizontal traverse over a steep gully section. The anchors were all piton fixed in rock sections, and seemed very secure. On the way up, we picked up some more of the rope that the team yesterday had left behind when they had come down, which meant that I had 400m of the stuff. However, I had minimal other kit, so my bag wasn't too heavy (the rope is about 3.5kg/100m). By about 11.30 we reached the top of the line, where Fabrizio had finished fixing the previous day. After one false start leading off with a section of rope which was too short, we started a new spool of Korean rope (200m), and the point man led off up a steep section, towards camp 1. At this point 2 of the team decided to dump their rope and head down, as the weather had really turned, and it was getting quite cold, especially with all the standing around waiting for the lead man to set up his anchors before we could follow up. The wind had picked up, and we were constantly assailed by flurries of spindrift which seemed to get everywhere! We stamped our feet and clapped our hands to keep the circulation flowing, and flexed our legs after standing in one position for too long to prevent them seizing up. Due to taking some of the rope from the others, I now had about 550m of rope on my back, which although wasn't too heavy, certainly threw my centre of balance off a little, and I had to be careful when I shifted around. We fixed another 120-150 metres, and actually mistakenly went straight past camp 1 without really noticing it there is literally room for 2 tents at a push! Once we decided that it was too cold to continue, we dumped all the rope that we had at the top anchor - around 1300m between us, and then abseiled back down the fixed rope as quickly as possible. As we got further down the route, the weather cleared up dramatically, and the unfixed section at the bottom was becoming quite slushy, which meant that you could almost jog down. We dumped our climbing gear at the gear stash and then headed back to BC - avoiding any puddles along the way!
