Dispatch Thirty: April 23rd, 2010 |
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Annapurna Expedition 2010 |
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Day Thirty: Recovery and Preparation for Summit Push Today, after a decent night’s sleep, I headed to the mess tent for breakfast. Afterwards. Evgheny and Serguey (Russia) started up for Camp I, where they will spend the night in my tent and get a head start on the others. Tomorrow everyone else in the group, including me, will head directly to Camp II (5,570m) for the start of our summit push, aiming to top out on the 27th. I’m quite apprehensive for the climb from Camp II to Camp III (6,400m) as the weather forecast again calls for high winds on the 25th (>60km/hr) and I know all too well how miserable the climb is in bad weather, not to mention how dangerous. I will ensure that I get a very early start to avoid the afternoon storms, and maximize my time in Camp III to recover and rest before heading higher (Camp IV is at approximately 7000 meters). I am bringing along my bivy sack as a backup as I am no longer sure that the tent that Joao deposited in Camp III for me will be there upon my arrival. I took a shower in base camp, finishing in the nick of time; an hour later, the afternoon clouds rolled in from the gorge and the now typical afternoon hail/snow storm drove us all into our tents, where we thoroughly exhausted our reading materials. Thunder reverberated off the massive rock walls around us and massive avalanches roared in the distance as overloaded snow slopes and seracs gave way to gravity. We had our last meal in base camp together, then headed to our tents for our final comfortable night’s sleep. The coming days will surely prove extremely challenging and I have a nagging feeling that Annapurna has quite a few more surprises in store for us, her summit remaining one of the least climbed in the Himalayas. We all approach her with a profound amount of respect; her slopes having claimed the lives of some of the world’s most respected and experienced climbers.
Photo: Panorama of the North Face of Annapurna viewed from Base Camp (note the ever-present high winds blasting the upper flanks of the mountain) |
