As promised, the truth about the summit attempt (or summit success it should be) - only a week or so late since I have been back in civilisation for a week but it has taken me that long to come down (as it were).
Island Peak - as seen on the right here rising from the valley. It is just under 6200 meters altitude (that is 20,100 feet) and rises 1300 meters from the valley floor (that is the same height as Ben Nevis from sea level for the brits) - although of course that valley floor is about 5000 meters (17,000 above sea level). It is described by the Himalayan Mountain Guides association as a trecking peak - since it is "easy" - and by the climbing sherpas as "a small hill" - both of which say more about sherpas than about the mountain. (BTW after a successfull climb we were told the true translation of the sherpa phrase "a small hill" - which is "if we told you how hard it is you would give before you started" :)
Island Peak is actually higher than any mountain in Europe ... any mountain in North America... any mountain in Africa ... almost any mountain in Asia outside of the Himalaya. There are some mountains higher in places like Tajikistan and South America - but not many! It is big and has technical stuff on top.
We started from base camp (5000 meters) at 02:00. It takes 12 - 15 hours to go up and down and you want to be at the top in the morning to get the views - and avoid the avalanches! This also means - as we discoverd later - that you cannot see just how steep and technical the climb up is until you come down :) The climbing sherpas have this all worked out :)
You start climbing up the scree slope. it is dark and cold and the air is thin so you labour your way up for a couple of hours and the phrase ' there is a bit of rock climbing here" just seems to slip by you ... after another couple of hours you sort of realise that you have been scrambling up near vertical rock faces for rather a long time now! As one person said - "I shone the light to each side and there did not seem to be anything there - and then I decided not to think about it!" - that would be because we had been climbing up a steep shoulder of rock with sheer drops on each side!
With impecable timing just as rosy fingered dawn stuck her glorious head above the horiizon we reached the snow line and the "crampon point".
The day before we had training in the use of crampons, ice axe and "fixed ropes" - with the assurance that the training was much harder than the real thing - which was "all flat"! I am sure that by now you are starting to understand the ways of the climbing sherpa ("grasshoper!") and wil not be surprised when - after changing into waterproofs, climbing boots, crampons and roping up - we headed off UP a 60 degree slope! Flat! Harumph!. we then dropped down into a valley and around a very large crevase before finally heading up another 60 degree talus field to the base of a cliff. By this time we were hot, hungry and tired.
Now we come to the "little bit of fixed ropes to get to the summit" - which is where the 150 meters of vertical ice cliff above our heads comes in. Luckily - we had a bit of rest while the climbing sherpas (who do not seem to get tired) fixed up the ropes but Lhakpa was worried about avalanches and so gets us moving as soon as possible - up the fixed ropes. Climbing up an ice face at 6000 meters is the hardest thing I have ever done. The body just wants to go away and give up! Every movement seems to take breathfulls of air. The only thing that got me up the cliff was the bloodyminded determination that I was not going to be the first of the group to give up (and talking later - they mostly thought the same thing).
And then - finally - the summit. A feeling of pure achievement and I would have jumped up and down for joy if we were not roped together on a small (2 meter square ) area of the summit with 1000 foot drops on all sides. The air was like crystal and the views were amazing - as were the smiles on everyone's faces.
The climb down was just hard work in the hot sun - across the snow and then down the cliffs and scree slopes (try 500 meters of scree slope when you have been climbing for 12 hours in 50% air pressure and you get what tired is :)
But the achievement of the climb was definately worth it!
There may be a few photos to follow :)
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