American Autumn Shishapangma Expedition 2005: Team convergence

Val's post: It was 4am. I was in the tent, watching Dave sleep on 1.5 liters/minute of oxygen, reading his pulse-ox every half hour, just looking at my book in front of me. Not reading it, not even lying down. Just taking in all of the 'thinking' my brain was doing. Thinking of all of the possible future paths, how we got here, how our team was making decisions together, how I was feeling, how people from all around the world can come together to help out when necessary. It was a busy night.

As often happens on expeditions, our team was all over the place today. Dave was in Kathmandu after hiking down to BC and taking a one-day jeep ride to Nepal. Monty was on his way up to ABC after hauling Dave's gear to BC and taking a rest day there. Eric and I were on our way down from Camp 1 (6360m) after spending the night there. Bemba was resting in ABC after hauling a load up to Camp 1 yesterday. Pratap (our sirdar who was previously in BC) was back in Kathmandu as he was unable to successfully acclimatize. And Dorje was in camp making us fried potatoes, epicurious curry, delectable dhal, and chocolate cake.

Best of all was that we were able to finally start climbing the mountain. Crampons, double boots, ice axes, hanging stoves, big warm sleeping bags (too warm for now!), and the big back packs all made their debut yesterday. From ABC, the hike up to depot camp is typical of a trail covering scree, a rocky glacier, with a few slopes of dirt to slide on and streams to cross. The fun really began as we crossed the penitentes (aptly named). Go up 10 feet, down 8, around a corner, jump across a stream flowing through the sculpted ice field. Now add in blazing hot sun at 10am and a pack that is probably a little too heavy than desired. Stop, wipe the sweat off your brow, and add sunblock. After the penitentes, look up that really long snow slope, dotted with some climbers, a few skiers skinning up, a few crevasses to cross, and smiling Sherpas descending. Now climb it--in slow motion. At the top, Eric and I decide to sleep at Camp 1 to both make the day end sooner and aid our acclimatization. Our first foray up the mountain also caused us to adjust our climbing schedule some.

For now, our team sans Dave has converged at ABC, and we are all happy to have a rest day tomorrow: time for laundry, organization, and perhaps even some rest!

-Val

Eric's comments: OK, that was way too upbeat. Going up the snowslope, it goes like this:       [breathe]

    [step]

repeat 10,000 times.

Felt like it was 120 degrees. A lot of pain and VERY slow going. Obviously we didn't know how far Camp 1 was, to even think we could go up and down. It was safer staying there, as accidents mainly happen going down, when climbers are tired. The trip back today was fairly exhausting, so all the better we came down today.

--Eric

Updates

Built to handle a myriad of different climbing pursuits, the Ultralight Universal is our best selling crampon. This crampon lives for trekking, glacier travel, or steep couloirs and snowfields. Totally adjustable Zytel straps make this crampon durable and easy to use. Fits everything from moon boots to flip-flops, our lightest crampon available. Weight: 590g Points: 10. See more here.

  Altitude pre-
   acclimatization

   Ascenders

   Atlas snowshoes

   Black Diamond

   Botas

   Brunton

   Carabiners

   CaVa Climbing Shoes
   Clearance

   Clif Bar

   Cloudveil

   CMI

   Crampons

   Edelweiss ropes
   Eureka Tents

   Featured

   FoxRiver

   Garmin

   Granite Gear

   Harnesses
   Headlamps
   Helmets

   HighGear
   Ice Axes

   Kavu Eyewear

   Katadyn

   Kelty

   Kong

   Lekisport

   Lowepro

   Motorola

   Mountain Hardwear

   Mountainsmith

   MSR

   Nalgene

   New England Ropes

   Nikwax

   Omega

   Patagonia

   Pelican

   Petzl

   PowerBar

   Princeton Tec

   Prescription Glacier

   Glasses

   Primus

   Rope Bags

   Seattle Sports

   Serius
   Sleeping Bags

   Stubai

   Suunto

   Tents

   Thermarest

   Trango

   Tool Logic

   Trekking Poles
   Yaktrax
   and more here