Dispatch Thirteen: April 6th, 2010 |
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Annapurna Expedition 2010 |
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Day Thirteen: Puja Ceremony in BC; Preparations for Carry to Camp I Today, I woke up at 8:00am, had a leisurely breakfast, and prepared my backpack for the carry to Camp I tomorrow. I may also try and push up to Camp II if the weather and route conditions allow it. Camp I is quite low, at an elevation of 5000 meters, close to the altitude of the majority of Himalayan base camps. Camp II isn’t much higher at 5,556 meters (according to the Spanish Al Filo Team), so it is a fully realistic goal to attempt to establish Camp II in the coming days. I am a bit weary of the descriptions of the route I’ve been given thus far. It seems that Annapurna throws basically every objective hazard imaginable at you the moment you start up towards Camp I: rockfall, waterfalls, avalanches, crevasse fields, plateaus with knee-waist deep snow, overhanging seracs, and icefalls! I doubt that I will be graced with a dull moment for the entire climb tomorrow, or the next day to Camp II. In the afternoon, as we were sitting down for lunch, Juanito and Tolo (Basque and Spanish respectively) arrived to our camp, and we caught up (both of them attempted Shishapangma’s summit with Mario and I last Autumn). After lunch, I headed back to my tent to further organize it and tried my best to clean off the dust that had accumulated on everything inside to no avail. Once this was done, I headed up to the Korean camp where they were preparing to go live on air via the satellite dish they had with them in Base Camp. It was quite the production and was quite entertaining to watch. While there, I caught up with Miss Oh Euh Sun (who I met in 2008 on Broad Peak) and spoke at some length with her about the route and the weather. Afterward, I headed back to my base camp for dinner. Tomorrow, I will get up at 4:30am, have breakfast at 5am, and hopefully start up toward Camp I around 5:30am before the slopes have a chance to warm up. The climb to Camp I should take no more than three hours, so I should make it there and establish Camp I before the afternoon clouds come in and more snow starts to fall. Photos: Left: Prayer flags with Annapurna in the background; Right: Annapurna with high winds blasting the summit |
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