Category Archives: Mountaineering

Kangchenjunga 2002

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Kangchenjunga camps and tops

Kangchenjunga  – meaning the five treasures of the snow – is located on the border of Nepal and Sikkim (India), it is the worlds third highest mountain. In 2002 i flew into Kathmandu to join a team of 12 climbers and 7 Nepalese high altitude climbers and apprentices to try to climb the mountain. This was a long expedition, 1st April to 10th June a total of 71 days. After a couple of days in Kathmandu getting our necessary trekking and climbing permits sorted out we were keen to get going – but there was a problem, the country was in the grip of a national strike and travel outside of the city was not possible while it continued. To get round this setback six of the team decided to fly out to Taplejung in a small plane, while the rest of us sat it out in Kathmandu. Taplejung is 500 km east of Kathmandu and is the start of the long trek into Kangchenjunga. The strike ended midnight on the 6th April, one hour later we were packing our rugged coach with a mountain of rucsacs, kit bags, tents and equipment. That day we travelled for 18 hours including a one hour stop to sort the suspension out, eventually we stopped at a lodge in Birtomid and got some rest. The next day was similar but the road quality was worse and got steeper with some crazy hairpin bends, we stopped at Phidim that night unable to go further because a curfew was in place because of the Maoist problem. Another long day on the coach followed this time problems with a fuel line and eventually the bus got grounded just short of our destination of Tapeljung, we had to walk the rest of the way.

Taplejung was the start of the trek into Kangchenjunga base camp – a place called Pang Pema. We took nine days to walk there and each day typically involves five to seven hours trekking time, by the time we got to base camp we were acclimatising well. It was at Taplejung that Dan our expedition leader and his sirdar Kaji had the Herculean task of organising our army of 80 plus porters. Most of these porters stayed with us until Ghunsa, where the ethnicity of the people change and they become more Tibetan. From here onwards a lot of our gear was transported on yaks. The overnight stops on the trek in where at the following places, sometimes we camped and other times we used the lodges in the villages.

Kangchenjunga base camp at Pang Pema (photo Steve Dodson)

Kangchenjunga base camp at Pang Pema (photo Steve Dodson)

  1. Mitlung (905m)
  2. Chirwa (1270m)
  3. Sekathom (1750m)
  4. Amjilassa (2490m)
  5. Gyabla (2700m)
  6. Ghunsa (3380m)
  7. Kangbachen (4000m)
  8. Lhonak (4650m)
  9. Pang Pema (5100m)

Pang Pema was our home for the next 40 days and gave access to the giant north face of Kangchenjunga.

  • Advanced base camp (5350m) From base camp we actually had to
    Kangchenjunga lower camps from the rock band

    Kangchenjunga lower camps from the rock band

    drop down to cross a large moraine area before gaining access to the Kangchenjunga Glacier itself, then it was a trek up to the head of the glacier to the tent, mainly used as a storage dump.

  • Camp 1 (5700m) We struggled to find the best way up to camp 1 at first, choosing a slightly dangerous way to begin with, past over-hanging seracs, after a while we found a much safer route up the side of an ice-fall.
  • Camp 2 (6500m) This involved the first proper climbing and was up a feature called the “ice building”. It was a snow/ice couloir about 300m long at about 40-50 degrees steep, it was dangerous though because it was a natural funnel for the hanging glaciers above.
  • Camp 3 (6700m) This camp site was actually in an ice cave, right at the base of the fearsome rock-band. The climb from camp 3 through the rock-band to camp 4 was the crux of the whole expedition and involved hard technical climbing on ice and rock and took us to over 7000m, Ivan, Julio, Felix, Chris, Stu and Janbu deserve a lot of credit for fixing the rope in this dangerous section of the climb. Another problem was that the fixed lines kept melting
    Climbing to camp 2 via the "Ice Building" (about 6100m)

    Climbing to camp 2 via the “Ice Building” (about 6100m)

    into the ice during sunny days and then freezing solid overnight, making it very hard to get them out without damaging them when climbing.

  • Camp 4 (7200m) Situated about 200m above the rock band on much easier ground.
  • Camp 5 (7700m) At the end of a snow plateau from camp 4 a couloir lead up to another snow field and camp 5 was next to some prominent boulders. Dan, Janbu, Felix and Galu made their first summit bid from here, they got as far as a feature called the Croissant at about 8000m before they were forced back by the weather. Dan and Janbu returned to camp 5 while Felix and Galu retreated to base camp. Two days later Dan and Janbu tried to summit for the second time but again the wind was too strong and they had to come down too.
  • Camp 6 (7950m) The next group of climbers were on the way up the mountain by now and on the 22nd May, Mike , Paul, Stu and Chris climbed through the rock band again and stayed at camp 4. The next day Chris and Stu headed up to camp 5, they picked up a small tent and kept going to just about the base of the Croissant and camped there at about 7950m. Paul and Mike headed up to camp 5
    Steep slopes at start of the rock Band

    Steep slopes at start of the rock Band

    and stayed there. May 24th – the weather was good, Chris and Stu went for the summit. Paul and Mike who were heading for camp 6 could see Chris and Stu above them heading towards the Pinnacles, the final obstacle before the summit, the sun was shining and had a strange sort of halo around it and the wind was low, we knew they could do it now. Late in the afternoon Mike and myself were in our tent at camp 6 brewing up and expecting to hear Chris and Stu at any time returning from the summit. We made our daily radio call to Dan in base camp at 7.00pm, he was concerned at the lack of news. At 7.15pm we heard a noise outside, it was Stu finally arriving back, he knelt down at the entrance to the tent and told us straight away the terrible news that Chris was dead, we were stunned.

    Kangchenjunga north face high camps and features

    Kangchenjunga north face high camps and features

    They had reached the summit of Kanchchenjunga at about 3.15pm that day, later than they hoped as they had been moving slowly but the weather was good. They shot some video and took pictures then started to descend back to the tents at camp 6, the accident happened at about 8400m, they were on a snow slope of about 25 degrees with small rock-steps, Stu was in front and he recalled hearing Chris shout and then he was sliding past him unable to stop and disappeared from view and finally stopped about 200m to the right of our camp 6, Stu descended down to him and his worst fears were confirmed. The next morning me and Stu made our way across to his body and paid our last respects and i climbed down the slope for about 100m and retrieved his rucsac which had his video camera in. We all descended after that and for us the expedition was over, it took us three days to return to base camp and on the afternoon of that first day it started snowing and it continued, the monsoon had arrived and we were climbing down through deep dangerous snow slopes at the end.

Before we finally left base camp we had a little ceremony for Chris. Malte engraved a stainless steel plate with Chris`s details on, using a nail and an ice-axe and we added it to the memorial cairn for climbers at base camp, Mike took a good photo of the group present and then we left for home. It took us 4 days trekking out and two days on the bus before we were back at Kathmandu again. While we were in Kathmandu Chris`s family and friends flew out to meet the expedition and have a meal with us and to talk about what had happened.

Most of the photos in this piece are by Stu Findlay – my camera broke on the journey in.

K2 after an overnight snow storm

Pakistan 2009 – Broad Peak and K2

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I had always wanted to go to the Karakorum mountains and for years had read all about them and the expeditions that had gone there. I had  been tempted to do the k2 trek before but i knew if i went there i would want to do some climbing too, so i waited my time and gained experience. In 2009 the time was right and i signed up for a big expedition to try to climb Broad Peak and K2.

The team assembled in Islamabad and composed of 11 climbers who were there solely to concentrate their efforts on K2, another 11 climbers were there to climb Broad Peak, (four of these later transferred over to K2 after the Broad Peak expedition had finished), there were also 4 trekkers with us for the adventurous journey in to base camp. Next we travelled north to Skardu (2500m). There are two ways to get there, the easiest way is to fly, which is a 45 minute flight passing the mighty Nanga Parbat mountain en route, the alternative is an epic 2 day road journey up the Karakorum Highway, an experience you wont forget in a hurry. Skardu was our home for five days, we organised gear and supplies and also did a lot of wandering around exploring the area.

The next major challenge for the expedition leaders Fabrizio and Chris was to get ourselves and our mountain of gear to the start of the trek at Askole, this involved a convoy of jeeps and a ride along the Shigar valley and then along the infamous track following the Braldu Gorge, this track has been much improved over the years and we managed it in just over 6 hours. At Askole the porters were hired and the loads weighed and we started the 7 day trek up to base camp, (all heights are approximates).Trango Towers

  1. Askole (3050m) – Jhula (3200m)
  2. Jhula – Paiju (3700m)
  3. Paiju – acclimatisation and rest day
  4. Paiju – Urdokas (4200m)
  5. Urdokus – Goro 2 (4500m)
  6. Goro 2 – Concordia (4600m)
  7. Concordia – Broad Peak base camp (4835m)

Broad peak was to be our home for the next 28 days and we were well looked after by our local kitchen staff at base camp and on the mountain our high altitude porters/climbers were invaluable. We spent our time setting the camps up and making acclimatisation trips and sleeping at all the high camps, we visited K2 base camp and the Gilkey memorial and there was also a lot of waiting around too, hoping for good weather. Our plan in a nutshell looked like this :-

  • Advanced base camp (5200m)
  • Camp 1 (5600m)
  • Camp 2 (6150m)
  • Camp 3 (7100m)
  • Broad Peak summit (8047m) hopefully!

 

K2 from Camp 3 on Broad Peak

K2 from Camp 3 on Broad Peak

At the end of the Broad Peak expedition four of the team joined the K2 team, an hour or so up the Godwin-Austin glacier, for the last 16 days of climbing. The K2 team had been busy fixing lines and setting up camps in challenging conditions on the Cesen route while we were on Broad Peak. We hoped to join them for the summit attempt to see how far we got and just to enjoy the climbing on such an iconic mountain. The highest any of our team got was camp 4 on the shoulder of K2 and that year nobody climbed K2 at all.

David Ohlson who was on the K2 team has made an adventure documentary about the expedition, its called  “K2: Siren of the Himalayas”

He has also put some put some professionally produced videos on youtube which are well worth a look.

K2: Expedition part 1

K2: Expedition part 2

and finally some photos from the expedition…

[ Thanks to Wim Smets who was also on the expedition for some of his K2 photos ]

 

Denali

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Denali  meaning  ” the high one” is the native American name for North Americas highest peak standing at 6149m, for a while it was known as Mount Mckinley but officially it is now Denali. We were a four person self organised expedition, a Dutch couple Mark and Petra, their friend Jo and myself and in May 2006 we flew into Anchorage in Alaska ready for the challenge ahead. We had a few days here organising stuff and topping our supplies up before getting a lift up to the small town of Talkeetna – the gateway to Denali. Denali National Park and Preserve requires climbing expeditions to pre-register 60 days prior to climbing and pay a fee. Another important thing to sort out prior to arrival was food. Our route was the West Buttress, which is by far the most popular route and probably the easiest and we gave ourselves 3 weeks climbing time, so this set the amount of food we needed – 21 day ration packs each consisting of about 4000+ calories as most days we would be working quite hard, all repackaged to reduce bulk and weight . We would use liquid white fuel to melt snow for drinks so had to work out how much of this we would need.

There are no porters on Denali unfortunately so everything we needed once on the glacier had to be transported by us, the usual way of doing that over there is to carry a big rucsac as normal and then to drag a plastic sled behind you, at the same time you are roped to your fellow team members because you are walking on a glacier with hidden crevasses. This needs a little practise and a lot of patience to get right and going downhill is not as easy as you think! We used 5 camps on our way and most of these were preceded by a day hike to make a cache of food and fuel which also helped to get us mountain fit.

Apart from the normal mountaineering gear other useful gear to have are :-

  • Snowshoes great for walking on deep soft snow.
  • Plastic sleds for dragging heavy loads.
  • Snow shovel for clearing tent platforms.
  • Ice saw for cutting snow blocks to shield tents from the wind.
  • Cane wands for route marking in bad conditions and for marking food and equipment caches.
  • Clean mountain cans (CMC)  Denali has a pack in – pack out policy applying to rubbish and supplies, a more recent initiative is the use of CMC to dispose of human waste from camps. there are latrines at 2200m and 4300m where the ranger station is at camp 4. At other places biodegradable plastic liners are used with the cans and these liners can then be thrown into deep crevasses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ama Dablam 2004

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Ama Dablam from Khumjung village

Ama Dablam from Khumjung village

Ama Dablam 6812m high is situated in the Solu-Khumbu region of Nepal and is one of the many awesome mountains visible on the Everest base camp trek and perhaps the most beautiful. The mountains name derives from its appearance with the two long ridges like the arms of a mother (Ama) protecting her child, and the hanging glacier near the summit is a charm box (Dablam) worn around her neck. In the autumn of 2004 i joined a commercial expedition to try and climb it. We all met in Katmandu and after a few days flew to the mountain airport at Lukla, here we picked up the Everest Trail and stayed on it all the way to Pangboche, where we turned off to trek up to Ama Dablam base camp.

  • Base camp (4650m) A surprising large flat grassy area with a nearby stream.
  • Advanced base camp (5500m) Used for acclimatisation hikes from base camp.
  • Camp 1 (5700m) involves scrambling over huge boulders then up a rock slab to camp.
  • Camp 2 (6000m) Not much height gain from camp one but involves a lot of scrambling along rock ridges and around pinnacles with large exposure. Includes probably the hardest section of the climb up the Yellow Tower. The campsite itself is very exposed.
  • Camp 3 (6280m) From camp two a steep snow ridge up through the Grey Tower area and then up the amazing Mushroom ridge. Camp three is based at the foot of the hanging glacier – the Dablam.
  • Summit day (6812m)  A snow-ice climb averaging about 40 degrees round the side of the hanging glacier (the Dablam) then onto the summit slopes.

 

 

 

Island Peak summit (6189m)

Nepal 1998

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This posting is a mainly pictorial record of a two month journey to Nepal in the autumn of 1998. The first month i was on a commercial expedition to the Everest region to climb two well-known trekking peaks of Mera and Island , linking them via challenging Amphu Labsta pass. We flew from Kathmandu into the small but spectacular mountain airport of Lukla .

  • Mera Peak  This mountain rises to the south of Everest between the Hinku and Hongu valleys, both these valleys are uninhabited.  By its standard route from the Mera La it is straight forward but strenuous trek. The view from the top is wide-ranging and spectacular.
  • The Amphu Labtsa pass  After climbing Mera Peak we descended to the Hongu valley and trekked to the head of the valley, a true mountain wilderness surrounded by huge peaks, the only way out being over high passes which require some mountaineering knowledge.
  • Island Peak  The name was given by the explorer and mountaineer Eric Shipton because it is almost totally surrounded by glaciers, the Nepali name is Imjatste. It was climbed in 1953 in preparation for the first ascent of Everest, very popular now due to its location and great views from the top.

After this i was on my own (but met various people ) and used the network of tea houses and lodges for cheap food and accommodation. I joined the Everest trail initially and trekked up to the Everest base camp area, then it was over to the Gokyo valley via the Cho La pass and explored the head of the valley and Cho Oyo base camp area. rejoining the Everest Tail again i headed down to Tenboche ( to see the monastery /Gompa), Namche Bazaar (the Sherpa capitol) and then down to Lukla from where i planned to fly back to Kathmandu. Due to a backlog of flights however i trekked out to the road head at Jiri instead, this was a pleasant but very hilly five-day trek followed by a nine-hour rickety bus ride to Kathmandu. i rounded the trip off with a few days exploring Katmandu, then an exciting 2 day rafting trip on the Bhote Kosi river and a chilled out 5 day safari to the Chitwan National park.

 

Pesky Peroneals

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The first time i really noticed i had a problem with my ankle was in Feb 2013. I was on my annual pilgrimage up to Scotland to do some winter mountaineering/climbing and was standing on the highest mountain in Glencoe, on the mighty Bidean nan Bian and the conditions were pretty much full-on winter.

i cant remember going over on the ankle or hurting it in any way all i knew was that i had a burning sensation on my left ankle just below the ankle bone and by the time i had hobbled and limped for three and a half hours back down to the valley below it really was a problem. The next day it was worse and two days into my much-anticipated trip it was over and i had to go home. After a few days rest it felt better but  it never really went away. I got a xray to check for hairline

Bidean nan Bian from Stob Coire nan Lochan

Bidean nan Bian from Stob Coire nan Lochan

fractures, then got treated for tendonitis and then tendonosis of the peroneal tendons and told to do lots of proprioception strengthening exercises ( try standing barefoot on one leg and raise yourself onto your toes – then close your eyes and do it! ) my legs got strong but the problem remained and it went on for months, the next try was a cortisone injection and the GTN patches (familiar to angina sufferers) on the affected area to try to increase the blood flow to the tendons. Eventually the Pysios gave up and i was referred to a surgeon, he requested an MRI scan which finally revealed what the true problem was – a longitudanal tear of the Peroneal Longus tendon. it was a relief actually knowing what the injury was and I just wished i had that scan straight away as it would have saved a year of pointless physio. Three months after this diagnosis i eventually had surgery to repair the tear and clean up the damage done. So here i sit two weeks into my recovery wondering and hoping when the next time i`ll be standing on top of a Scottish Mountain will be!

Khan Tengri

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Khan Tengri summit (6995m)

Khan Tengri summit (6995m)

This posting is a record of a climbing expedition to the Tien Shan mountains of Central Asia (24th July – 22 Aug 1999). It is one of the great mountain ranges of the world though relatively unknown and unexplored due to its remote location and the politics of the area. About two-thirds of the Tien Shan lie in Kirghizstan, a new state which got its independence in 1991 following the break up of the USSR and borders Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and China.

The main aim of the trip was to visit the South Inylchek Glacier and attempt to climb one or both of the two giants there namely Khan Tengri (6995m) and Peak Pobeda (7439m) and also Gorky Peak (6050m) a lower but technically harder mountain.

The nine members of the expedition flew from Manchester via Amsterdam to the Kazakh Capitol Almaty. Next it was a rough ten-hour truck journey to Karakol where we picked up supplies of food from the local bazaar and had an overnight stop. early next morning it was back on the truck for an even rougher five-hour ride to Maidaadyr which was literally the end of the road. From here a helicopter took us up the enormous Inlychek glacier and dropped us off in the Putevodny Basin, a tributary glacier to the Inlychek, Here we were surrounded by unclimbed mountains and hoped to acclimatise to the altitude and do some climbing. Eight days later the helicopter returned and took us further up the South Inlychek glacier to the main base camp area of Khan Tengri where we based ourselves for the rest of the trip.