A serious day of uphill! I woke about 7 to get my bag packed for what I imagined could be a tough day. When you have the crampons, the ice axe, the harness, the belay device, a figure of 8, and a bunch of caribiners, you know it ain’t going to be a dawdle. Also packed up a few days snacks and lots of layers. T
he sherpas left at 1 am, and carried our sleeping bags and air mattresses. (They then went on to Camp 2, cache’d some stuff, and we passed them as we ascended as they were heading back to BC).
After breakfast, so much food, we gathered at the Puja and tossed rice before heading upwards. The trail out of camp is absolutely brutal. Steep uphill immediately. I’m gasping, trying to catch a breath, all short breaths that are effectively useless. Super slow pace, to try and gets the air deeper into the lungs. WTF I am doing here!!! We worked ourselves up a significant boulder field, heading to crampon point. The glacier had retreated a lot it seems, as this boulder field/moraine is the remnants. After half an hour, still not breathing great, we reach the first of the day’s fixed lines. A steep section of rock that requires the use of the ascender. After that section, the slope became less severe, and normal breathing commenced. It was a glorious morning, sunny, warm, with glorious – scary – views of Manaslu to our left, and North Manaslu straight ahead. Now I know why I wanted to be here – but there will be much more questioning in the days ahead.
We reached crampon point – where, dah, you put on crampons! – after about 90 mins, and we were on the glacier thereafter. The glacier is riven with crevasses, so we were always attached to the fixed lines. Large snd small crevasses, some requiring a simple step over, some a short jump. We could hear and see occasional avalanches in the steep ground (well) to our left and right. We moved slowly, never taking unscheduled stops, but Terray said we were cruising!
We had a view of Camp 1 for quite a while, and reached it about 2pm. However, this was lower Camp 1, and our tents were in upper Camp 1. Naturally!! That last 50 minutes were rough – another wtf am I doing here moment. Every group of tents we passed, I prayed was ours. Nope, ours is the absolute highest, surrounded by a crevasse – careful weeing at night! We reached our site at 2:50pm. Encouragingly, everyone was pretty wrecked – is it bad that I was encouraged that everyone was as bad or worse than me? We got our gear into the tent, had a bowl of noodle soup, and now it’s rest.
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