Nicholas Rice: Broad Peak Dispatch

2007 Broad Peak Expedition

Dispatch Nineteen: June 28th, 2007

Day Nineteen: Stormy Weather sets in with High Winds; Retreat from CI

Today, I woke up when Ali came by my tent and told me that he and the other climbers were going to go down due to the impending bad weather. I had received a weather forecast to that effect the night before alerting climbers on Broad Peak of impending high winds and potential snowfall for a period of seven days. I gathered my things, sorting what I was leaving in a cache in Camp I and what I needed to bring back down to base camp, had a small breakfast, filled my water bottles, and began the descent down the steep slopes toward base camp. I was amazed to see a large group of climbers coming up to Camp I considering the unstable weather and the forecast for high winds. I continued down the fixed lines and arrived at the base of the route an hour and a half later. The route back to our base camp proved once again to be quite elusive as the rock cairns and some flags still remained from the year before. I arrived back at base camp at 10:30am. I explained to the Mexicans what had happened to my shoulder which was now very inflamed from the impact of the rock, and they suggested that I see the Mexican doctor who was camped below us. With luck, he decided to pay us a visit during lunch, and I was saved the trip down to his camp. He checked the joints and informed me that I had damaged my rotator cuff and some of the surrounding muscle tissue and that if I wanted to be able to use the arm at all, I needed to keep off of it for the next few days. I took the news pretty well because I was already planning a few days rest after sleeping at Camp I and the weather wasn’t looking too good for going up in anyway. After some discussion, I accompanied him to his base camp where he gave me a sling to support my arm and a neuro-electrical stimulation device to help stimulate the injured muscle in order to drain the lactic acid and other byproducts of the injured muscle tissue. After the first ten minute session, my shoulder began to feel a bit better. I unpacked my backpack with the help of Jorge, and had a long dinner with all the members, minus Felix (Spanish) who carried a tent up to Camp I. We stayed up talking about the weather and the different members’ plans to carry another load to camp I the next day, and went to bed after deciding on an 8:30am breakfast time (very late for our standards).