Today's focus is to get as much personal and group food, gear, and supplies to Camp 2 as possible - ensuring that we don't take anything we might still need at Camp 1 - and then climb back down to Camp 1 and sleep. This will position us well for our eventual summit day and give us another good day of acclimitization ("climb high, sleep low"). From this point on we will be climbing without sleds and with crampons on our climbing boots.
Visibilty is great today - with the cloud now below us and still howevering over the lower part of the glacier. The temperature is a little cooler so layering decisions will be a little more critical. It is also very sunny! Even while in the cloud, I put sunscreen on every time we stopped - and my face is still turning a nice shade of crimson red. Today the sunscreen and lip balm will be even more important. I've learned to get the sunscreen up inside my nose as far as I can since the reflection from the snow will burn the inside of my nostrils.
We leave Camp 1 at 2:30 PM and climb 1,000 ft (304 m) to get to the fixed lines. It takes us about an hour and we take a break at the bottom of the lines.
We have only encountered 2 other people on the mountain so far - which is very unusual and also very nice. We do feel like we have the mountain to ourselves. The two folks we did see are a pair of German climbers. They were originally climbing Mt. Tyree, the second highest peak in Antarctica, when a rock fall early on the climb broke the arm of their third climbing partner. After getting him safely back to Vinson Base Camp, they decided they would climb Vinson as a two-person team. They started off ahead of us today and we could see them high on the fixed lines... slowly working their way up.
For the next 4.5 hours we are climbing up the fixed lines - taking a break each hour for food, water, and to ensure our pee bottle hasn't frozen! We are not roped together, though, and we can climb somewhat at our own pace. We are connected to the line via a safety line/carabineer and our ascender.
It's close to 8 PM and we are finally off the fixed lines. From here it is still about 1.5 hours to Camp 2. We are now getting a breeze from the back side of the ridge and it is getting VERY cold. We rope up into teams, ice axes out for the first time and away we go. While I am walking I am quickly putting on everything I can find to keep warm. I have an extra pair of gloves clipped to my harness - they go on. I have an extra hat in my pocket - it goes on. My two hoods are up and I am keeping my chin warm by blowing down into the buff wrapped around my neck. Wow... My feet, fortunately, are nice and warm!
We get to Camp 2, 13,500 ft (4,115 m) and it is REALLY cold. We are quickly trying to get out gear out to cache so that we are not standing around in the cold too long. Vern wants us to stay roped up. There is another climbing team at Camp 2 from IMG (International Mountain Guies) led by Phil Ershler. They had just summited that day, but are gladly helping us out - refilling water bottles with warm water and even emptying our pee bottles. Vern and Tim quickly consolidate the gear, tie it down, and by 9:50 we are walking back down.
I am definitely tired - but, dinner and sleep are back down the fixed lines - so all other thoughts are purged and it's all about the next step and keeping warm!
It takes us 18 minutes to get back to the fixed lines. We are moving faster and I am a little warmer, but I am still cool. I decide to leave an extra layer on for the fixed lines and it turns out to be a not a good decision.
Some people say that going down is harder than going up. This is not the case for me, but it's easy to forget that going down still takes a LOT of energy and even more mental focus. As I headed down, I focused on my next step, but completely forgot about my breathing. After 300 ft (91 M) I was really starting to get warm... after 600 ft (182 m) I was already sweating and I could feel my elevated heart rate throbbing through the top of my head! Both of these were good reminders that I needed to SLOW down - which I gradually did. It took me about 45 minutes to make it back down the fixed lines. My rope team was waiting for me at the bottom and we roped back up for the walk back down to Camp 1.
We got back to Camp 1 about 11:30 PM - 9 hours of up and down. What a day! We all gathered in the posh tent for dinner and hot drinks. Everyone was tired but in great spirits. Tomorrow the plan is to break Camp 1 and move to Camp 2 - back up the fixed lines... but this time making a new home at 13,500 ft (4,115 m).
Comments