Camp 3 to High Point on Kalanag at 6,380m; May 10

Photo Above (by Yveline Gobil): Our high point on Kalanag, at about 20,600' we decided to turn back due to the storm that was building. This was a beautiful view of the Himal Pradesh from the highest point in sight.

Photo Below: Above Camp 3 we navigate the crevasses and cornice fractures. It was a COLD day, with temps below zero Farenheit... we moved slowly upward on the steep sections... it warmed a bit when the sun came over the Himal Pradesh.

Photo (by Yveline Gobil) - Slogging upwards at above 20,000', camp 3 is behind/below that knob directly behind me


We are up and moving by 3:30 AM. It is bitter cold with just a hint of wind… I am not dressed warmly enough but don’t want to take the time to add a layer… I tell myself that once moving the exertion will warm me enough.

Mindful Moment: As I’m stepping into my harness, I look over at Tindoop. Without gloves he is working on his crampons – first he straightens them out and then he methodically puts each one on, buckling the straps with bare fingers. He takes the time. Then he grabs the snow pickets and lashes them onto his backpack, still with bare hands. They are metal. I can feel the deep cold in my gloved hands. I wonder how different our body chemistries are… he is so capable in these temperatures and altitudes.

The climbing is steepest just above Camp 3 – and it is also the most dangerous due to crevasses and the deep snow… at times we are wallowing in waist-deep snow, basically trying to swim upstream. The snow is so light that we cannot get an axe belay to pull ourselves up. We cross some crevasses… with and without fixed ropes. It takes a bit of a hop to get across a couple… I am ready to have the snow give way and fall in. I notice that my heart rate is pretty high… combination of the deep cold and the work rate. My mind goes to scenes of the first snow days each winter when the number of heart attacks rises as out of shape, overweight people try to shovel driveways. I am aware that as acclimatization occurs the higher concentration of red blood cells (to carry hemoglobin) causes the blood to thicken - that, coupled with dehydration can make the blood more sludgy... increasing the work rate on the heart. Extreme cold starting in the extremeties also makes the blood thicker... so there is a compound effect (this is one of the major reasons that proper hydration is SO critical in mountaineering). As I'm feeling my heart pounding and feeling the deep cold in my feet/hands, I wonder if I will have a heart attack; but decide that there is nothing I could do about that anyway… my ER doc brother is miles/days away in basecamp, with no equipment/meds in any case. If I have a heart attack I will die here. I smile and know that this is okay too... no death wish whatsoever but we do choose to live in certain ways and I am satisfied with this choice. As countermeasures, I am mindful about pre-warming the air I'm breathing by covering my face; and I do slow down in the steepest sections... monitoring my breathing and heart rate. It settles down. Onward we go. I am content with the progress.
It stays very cold until the sun creeps over the Himal Pradesh at around 7 (I’m guessing this time… am not motivated to look at my watch)… we are grinding our way up the deep snow slopes, bearing to the right of the summit ridge, just inside the cornice fracture lines. We can see them… Raja points out that this is dangerous… and that we should move to the left. The terrain dictates that we stay right for a while and then we do break left away from the cornice fractures.
Sometime later (9-ish?) Raja tells me that we are within an hour of the summit. I feel strong and am sure that we will summit that day. Staying in the moment, I just keep that rhythm of left foot-right-foot-rest… following the rope to the person in front. Eventually I am roped with Yveline and Tindoop, since Elisabeth has been moving more slowly – she ropes with Raja and Phuba. We advance a bit faster but stop and rest while waiting for them from time to time.
At about 10 AM Raja suddenly declares that we need to turn around. We are looking at the summit, several hundred meters away. Raja says that we are above 6,300 meters but that we do not have time to summit before the snows begin again. This is an anxious moment for all. Yveline looks directly at him and says, “no… we must keep going…” and she turns and continues the ascent. She is in the lead on our rope and Tindoop turns and follows… I am third on the rope and I shrug my shoulders and shout down to Raja that we will have to split into two ropes… they can descend and we (moving faster) will continue to the summit. I turn and we continue.

Within a half hour I become concerned that we are moving too slowly in the deepening snow near the summit cornices…. Even Tendu and Yveline needed to rest after 5-10 steps… The weather was going to deteriorate within an hour or two… clouds had been forming on some of the lower peaks in the Himal Pradesh. I got Tindoop’s attention during a rest stop and motioned ‘how long to summit’… he didn’t hesitate … holding up two fingers. Yveline and I made eye contact… we were going down. I caught up with them and we stood together, dropped packs, unfurled the prayer flags and took a few photos.
We headed down quickly, passing the other rope and navigating the crevasses (using fixed rope set on the ascent). We got to Camp 3 before the snow; but the other rope, about 30 minutes behind were arriving in a light snow. Raja was furious and unleashed a tirade on Yveline… he had been upset all the way down and accused her (us?) of sabotaging the group expedition. This went on for several tense minutes as the snow increased in intensity too. Yveline defused the situation by graciously accepting the blame and apologizing profusely. She put her arm around Raja and said that it was simply a misunderstanding and a mistake on her part. He accepted it and the tension lessened. Raja suggested that we take a 30 minute rest and then descend… I caught the looks of surprise in Y/E’s faces… the storm was blowing in pretty hard by now. We went to our tent and just rested.
After a few minutes we started sharing our concerns with a descent in those poor conditions. I volunteered to face Raja with the idea that it may be better to stay until conditions were better. I stuck my head into the vestibule of the tent and asked how strongly he felt about descending that day. I told him that we would go if he thought we needed to.. .but that we were concerned about descending in that storm. He agreed that conditions were not good, but was concerned that we had almost no food and fuel left. I told him that we were okay with that… and that we’d stay if he wanted to wait it out. We agreed. Everyone hunkered down for another night at 18,500’. Yveliine and Elisabeth had a daily ration of chocolate, plus some veggie pate… this was gourmet fare for a mountain trip… I had a few packets of GU left and offered them to the team as well.
End of a long day… we rested in the tent and waited for the snow to stop. It snowed until nightfall, another 20-30”. We would descend in the morning and try to get to basecamp before it started again.