Peak 41. An attempt. A lesson in tenacity.
Peak 41 and Noddy.
Noddy landed in Kathmandu bringing a load of shiny new gear on the 22nd of October after Andy Houseman and I had been robbed of everything from our BC the day before we were due to start our climb. Our BC was situated 45 minutes away from the small village of Khare in the Hinku Valley. Khare is the last established settlement before heading to the snow for the crowds who climb Mera Peak. The estimated cost of gear stolen is £10 000. Andy and I both returned to Kathmandu, a three day walk from the scattered pasta in the dust, all that was left of our BC. A flight from Lukla to Kathmandu gave game over… or so we thought? Andy left for Britain 2 days later.
Noddy, a sales rep from DMM with very little Scottish winter experience e-mailed saying he needed a holiday and always fancied trying a tad of the bigger stuff! So we went to the hills where the acclimatisation was normal, but some would probably say rapid, (I had after all already acclimatised and the groups being dragged, the mess and the shit on Mera was wearing thin (( a once in a life time experience??)) )...We went from Tagnag 4300 m to Mera high camp at 5800 in a one-er...so what’s the problem? Oh, ok, most do it in 2-3 days but hey Noddy is a sales rep used to driving the roads of Britain!
Noddy Acclimatising on Mera.
We then rested for 2 days and afterwards went from Tagnag to the bottom of the face... Ahh, but no we didn’t...Noddy did acclimatise really well but with no Alpine experience and certainly no Himalayan experience his body decided to hit melt down with the rather large sack on his back. The boulder hopping in big boots did not help either...(there is more to this Himalayan stuff than just the climbing!)... so after Noddy got a tad emotional at his lack of fitness I suggested to stash kit, return to Tagnag, rest for a day then return... we did this but Noddy had not recovered, so I continued on my own waving an emotion farewell to Noddy... with rack, 2 ropes, bivvy kit, food etc... (who was the emotianal one now?)
Preparing to go climb at last.
I climbed the technical approach, something like bristly ridge in North Wales combined with the Cosmiques Arete on the Midi, until I made an irreversible abseil onto the glacier. The ropes loosened a rock which hit my leg just above the knee causing quite a bit of pain, swelling and concern. What the hell did i need to do to get some climbing done.
Anyway, I limped across the glacier surrounded by the towering and daunting rock face of Peak 41 and bivvied at the base of the face dosed up on Brufen bombs.
Setting off at 1am, I limped across the glacier above my bivvy in the rubble and climbed some nice steep water ice beneath some worrying seracs until beneath the face to the left of the intended couloir. Runnels of fluted snow followed until 6 am where the cold got to me as I was not wearing my usual clothes as they had been stolen... so I cut a step and got in my sleeping bag for an hour to warm up. Continuing, the ground got steeper and more insecure...sugar snow gave hardly any support and the weight of the sack was always pulling. I could now look across to the couloir splitting the rock face as I was climbing the arête between the massive rock wall and the snow face... exposure stung my cheeks and hurt my head. Crossing from one runnel, when it ended, to another, was difficult. The deeper snow would hardly support weight and found me flapping a tad expecting the ground to disappear from beneath.
Climbing water ice beneath the seracs to reach the face.
I climbed even higher and the ground turned mixed and the climbing was very worrying... loose, steep rock, rippy ice and sugar-snow made it very insecure... at one point I had to abseil into a runnel to my left as I had hit an impasse with the loose overhanging rock... Then, about 5 metres from an obvious snow ledge, I had to leave my sack and back rope a section of snow climbing so insecure I thought I was definitely going to fall onto a loop I had secured to a single nut. Fortunately I did not.
Here was a perfect bivvy, but it was only 1.25pm, but I was knackered... I looked around the corner… more difficult climbing continued… I settled in for a long rest.
looking toward the bivvy at the top of the snow
Day 2 started at 7am where once again I had to back-rope a mixed section of climbing leading into a very steep section of loose and mixed glued with water-ice... not what I wanted before breakfast...
A start of the mixed above the bivvy. Day 2.
This section was harrowing, and I think would have turned me back in the past, but everything before had made me so driven to get this climb done… the theft, going back to Kathmandu, the rock on the knee, arguing with two poor porters, etc... Loose boulders stuck-out from the ice, and as I sat on one, traversing into a runnel of sugar with thousands of feet below, I expected the whole thing to rip... fortunately it didn’t but still the very, very insecure and loose rock continued... at last the climbing lead into a runnel of un-supporting snow which I climbed until at the foot of a large rock buttress approximately 2-300 metres beneath the summit. There was no weakness and as I had left my second rope and bivvy kit at the bivvy-site hoping to reach the summit, and it looked impassable, I cut a snow bollard into sugar and began the scary descent...
And the descent was scary...
I abseiled leaving much new DMM gear (sorry) into loose rock, then on the snow I made ice threads. Reaching the less steep ground was not so good in the full afternoon sun and I gingerly continued avoiding crevasses until beneath the tottering seracs... here I had to make 2 abseils which I did while looking up regularly until on the initial glacier above my starting bivvy at the base of the face... I lay on a large grey boulder beneath the rock wall at 6pm and slept for the first time in three nights...
On the 4th day I found a way off the glacier and reversed bristly ridge... Then walked the 7-hours to Tagnag where Noddy waited patiently.
The following day we started our 3-day walk out...
And now, I'm sat in Kathmandu after 7 days on the go...phew...beer and pizza tonight then?
Facts; Having had everything stolen was gutting… To return to Kathmandu and have Noddy come out with 60-kilo of gear and clothes and then return to the hills was amazing…I can not thank Noddy and DMM enough…what brilliant sponsors. The height I reached was about 6200-metres about 200-300-metres from the summit. The climbing was some of the hardest I have done in the Himalayas, with or without a partner. The climbing was probably the most insecure I have ever soloed, and this was the first time I have ever back-roped anything. Because Andy Houseman and I had all our gear stolen and could not replace everything, the climb was made really difficult as the base of the face was 2-days and from Tagnag, our T-house BC. Tagnag is at a height of 4300-metres. The bottom of the climb is at 5300 metres. Proper Himalayan Alpine style me thinks. Noddy and I started to walk in to the climb on the 4th of November. I continued to walk/climb into the base of the route at 5300m on the 5th. I started to climb at 1am on the 6th, reaching the bivvy at 1.25 pm at an approximate height of 6100m. Leaving the bivvy at 7am on the 7th I climbed to a high point of approximately 6200/300-metres where I could not climb any higher. Here I began to abseil and reached the base of the face at 6pm. On the 8th I walked to Tagnag in 7 hours. I would like to thank the MEF and the BMC for their support, my sponsors, DMM, Mammut and Vasque. Thanks also to Mountain Equipment, Crux and Travel lunch. Thanks to resident in Kathmandu, Ian Wall portersprogress.org for borrowing us the cash for the 2nd lot of Lukla flights. Thanks for my friend and agent Loben, lobenexpeditions.com Thanks to Freddie Wilkinson, MOG Man, aka Kev Mhonie and Ben Gilmore for the whisky, the 2 cylinders of gas, the food and the tent to sleep when distraught. Most of all thanks for Noddy for making it possible for me to swing an axe and to Biman Air for their baggage limits. 