Manaslu from Basecamp (2009)

Pictures

The first batch, in some sort of chronological order, can be found at:

http://gallery.me.com/derekmayne/100015

Some final thoughts...

Well I'm back safe and sound in London, it's really nice to be home. Sitting here, I'm not sure what was more dangerous, Manaslu or the Friday night out in Phuket. So many memories but it's all a big blur right now. I've spent the last few days trying to organise photos and all the video. We took over a thousand photos and hours of video so I have my work cut out for me. So much so that my first bit of retail therapy was to buy a new computer, some super Mac that will solve my life's problems. Thailand was great, climbing, eating, drinking, new friends, and some time with wifey. Six weeks has gone since I left, a long time but some good reflection on the trip and life in general.  

First let me say congratulations to the Helen Sovdat from Canmore on becoming the first Canadian to summit Manaslu. Helen is a mountain guide and worked hard to get up and down. It was nice to see the smile on her face when she was on the way down.  

Next, let me say that my thoughts and sympathies go out to the family and friends of Franz Oderlap. Franz died from his injuries after being caught in a serac avalanche just above Camp 1 on Oct 1, the day after we came down from our summit attempt. He was climbing with Davo Karnicar who we met at Camp 1 to film his ski descent. Very sad...  

Since I've been back, I seem to get two questions from almost everyone: 
1. How was it? 
2. What's next?  

The first is the hardest to answer and I think I would have to write a book to fully answer. The short version is it was great, hard but great. The second is a bit vague right now, with only about ten weeks until Christmas, I don't think I have time to climb another 8000 m peak by the end of the year. The short answer to that one though is spending time with my wife, visiting with friends, and god-forbid a bunch of little projects that resemble work. For everything in between, here's a bunch of random thoughts on the experience and what's coming:  

I think my best memory, aside from the joy that I wasn't going to loose any toes, was coming out of the tent at Camp 3 on our summit attempt. After making a slow and deliberate exit from my sleeping bag, covering my body parts with down-filled clothing as I exit, having a bowl of tea that tastes like last nights rama noodles, I struggle with the tent flap and emerge to the world at 6850 m. The air was still, the sun had come onto the col and it was warming us up nicely. My motivation had been lagging the night before and I awoke with a new found drive to get to the top. I'm not sure what it was that was dragging me down the night before, perhaps the incident below or maybe just fatigue or something else. When I think back to people asking me why I was doing this, I still don't have an exact answer. What I can say, is that there are moments in life which are special and for me, I find these a lot in the mountains and I think it is part of what makes me return. When I sit here and think about them, there is always something that is lost but the memory is still there. I can only really describe them as complete moments. This particular one, with the sun on us, a sea of clouds below us, hearing the snow crunch beneath my boots and my nostrils freezing as I inhaled the cold air. Slowing turning through the panorama of peaks piercing the clouds, Annapurna, the Himals, some nameless peaks in Tibet and finally the route to the summit right in your face. Knowing that it was me that had climbed there, and then there is the silence. These are the moments that make people go running for their camera in hopes of capturing some of what they are feeling so that they will trigger any level of sensory recall in the future. I already have a favourite picture from the trip and it does just this for me.  

I think you can generalise and say that most people that enjoy the mountains also respect them. They take the time to educate themselves on how to minimise their impact and conduct themselves accordingly. I can honestly say that one of the lowpoints in the expedition was on Sept 28 when I reached Camp 3. Most of the commercial groups had moved up their summit attempts to that day because of the weather forecast they had received was showing bad for Sept 30. (This was the day we planning for) This meant that my arrival at Camp 3 coincided with some of the group that had been up to the summit. This particular group was from Russell Brice's Himex, consisting of a few clients, the lead guide Adrian, and about ten Sherpas. It starts with an american girl, or United-Stater as Michel consistently insisted was the geographically correct term, sitting on her pack, eating a can of Pringles. She finishes the can and sets it on the snow beside her. A few minutes later, she gets up and starts to make her way down; the other clients start down as well. There were three Sherpas holding bags of garbage, the first throws his into a latrine and kicks the snow wall onto it, the other two are not as determined as the first and just find a simple hole. The lead guide, witnesses all this and even bends down to make sure that the can of Pringles is empty before he leaves it and starts down himself. It struck me that this was everything that commercial mountaineering should not be about. This arrogant attitude was rife through the entire group. Who would want to summit a mountain and leave a trail of garbage behind them? The clients, the lead expats employed and the locals have all been instilled with this and thought it was just fine. Himex was not the first group and certainly won't be the last to dump on the mountain but this what we witnessed in action. We collected two of the three bags of garbage as well as the can of Pringles, none of us had the stomach at that point to go digging in the latrine. An interesting footnote to this is that Russell had told Tchouky that he employs an extra Sherpa to bring down all of their garbage. I guess maybe the garbage Sherpa was sick that day.  

One of the problems I see with commercial operations is that they depend on their summit stats and most first-time clients probably wouldn't look past that, well aside for what kind of internet access they are offering. This could be one of the reasons for putting people on oxygen from 7000 m or even lower in some cases. As they had all moved up their summit runs by at least two days there were some repercussions, mostly people getting sick. We spoke to a Swiss guide who was the only one of three to make it because his friends got sick at Camp 4 and had to turn around. There was also the story of another small commercial group, 5 of them I think, who turned around because of altitude sickness as well. In talking with Kathryn, she was relaying what was written on websites and on this particular one, it was claimed that they had reached the false summit and not continued to the true summit because there were no fixed ropes. I think the chairlift was also broken that day. There is no guardian of the summit, stamping passports at the top so it's down to honesty and integrity to give a true account of your experience, sadly human nature and ego take over for some.  

Before this turns onto a full on hater blog on Commercial Mountaineering, let me say that there was a group that I met that seemed like the gold standard. In fact, you didn't even know it was a commercial operation. The owner likes to keep a low profile and seems quite careful on the clients he accepts.  

Going into this, I felt like I was in the best shape of my life. I had trained hard, done everything I could, and with the exception of a little flu bug a week before departure, had no issues. One of my reality checks in Chamonix was going from the house (1100 m) to the top of the Index at La Flegere (~2500 m) with a 15 kg pack, my best time for this was just under 2.5 hours and I felt good when I got there. That being said, getting from Camp 2 to Camp 3 the first time we went up (nothing on my back) was one of the hardest physical and mental days I've had in my life. If I were to do it again, I would have that experience for the mental side but I don't think anything would change the physical aspect. And still the question, would I do it again? I guess it is more a mental than a physical game. I will say that this is the hardest thing I have ever done.  

My new friend Guillaume ended up doing what I was always mentally prepared to do; wait it out in basecamp. After we left, there was 1.5 m of snowfall and they waited. Then they waited. Then waited some more, then they finally went home. He was in Kathmandu for a few days waiting for a seat in the plane to get back to Paris. Alain, David and Phillipe all packed it in just after us, I think the serac avalanche pushed them over the edge aside from the weather. David has been on a gap year and was due to start business school shortly after this trip so he didn't have much margin for error. We were extremely lucky with the conditions, sun and no snow for the entire month. Damn feet... I'm not sure we or anyone else could ever expect that again, and to top it off, those that made it up went to the true summit. In true Manaslu fashion, the weather went bad eventually.  

So sitting here looking out the window, it's time to move on. October is well underway, November is looking busy with a couple of trips back to the US/Canada. Then December comes with the Christmas season. I've been booking lunch with friends, cleaning up the house, and trying to figure out where to put my energy. Some work projects are cropping up, ice stuff again, as well as a few new opportunities. Kathryn and I have been dying to get a dog but life style just doesn't permit. You might see Coco, our Chocolate Lab puppy in a few of the pictures from the trip. He came with me and really had a good time. Now that I'm back in some reasonable shape, Kathryn is talking about her new career as a triathlete and planning trips around the world, Wildflower in May looks good. I'm sure that means she wants a new bike, I guess I probably need one too. Then there's that ever present question about a family...  

So there you have it, pictures should be up shortly, videos to follow. I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to read this along the way and especially to those that took the time to comment or send me a note while I was gone. I'd like to say a special thank you to Tchouky for being a super guide and friend on the trip, and to my my wife for all her love and support along the way.  

D

Doctor's Orders..

On return to basecamp, I had a long discussion with a Doctor that I know quite well as there we a few things that were on my mind.  My feet were the prime concern, had I stopped soon enough?  It would seem so, no lasting damage and the time with the hot water bottles was well spent.  I had seen something that stuck with my on the way down and couldn't really get it out of my head, a dead body.  It was only a few metres away but from the way it was facing you would think it was a tent or something else on the way up.  On the way down, he's looking right at you and you can't miss him.

It had warmed up lower down and the snow was not great, between some wind blown crust at the top, to soupy spring at the bottom, it was not the greatest ski of my life.  We were stopping at all the camps on the way down to collect all of our stuff that was strategically placed for the ascent.  Once we had reached Camp 1, it was home free but there were still odd bits to be collected.  While we were standing there, a climber was just reaching it for the first time and so we started chatting.  He was a Slovenian who had just arrived to try and ski the entire mountain.  He had just spent two weeks trekking with his family in the Khumbu region and had now come to climb.  When I mentioned frostbite, he showed me his left hand which was missing his pinky and ring finger.  After a bit of banter about skis and other things, we wished him good luck and were on our way.

In order for us to have made a second summit attempt, we need about 3 days of rest, then another 4-day clear window of good weather.  The forecast we were getting was showing that in just two days, the jet stream was moving right over Manaslu and we would have 110 km/hr winds on the summit.  In addition to this, there was snow coming.  It would seem that we had used all of our good weather karma and now if there was to be a second attempt it would be in 7-10 days.

Putting all this in the pot and letting it stew, it was time to go.  The next morning, we set about packing everything and then headed down to Samagaon.  The walk down is not trivial and actually my legs were still sore two days later.  As luck would have it, there was another group waiting for a military helicopter to take them back to Kathmandu and they had space.  We waiting patiently with them as the Interior Minister of Nepal was the current passenger and he needed to be finished before we could take up occupancy.  It would have been too good to be true to arrive in Samagaon, then straight to Kathmandu, we ended up spending the night.  The next morning, not exactly on time, but it was there.  We were tricked once when a B1 flew overhead toward basecamp, but shortly after this lumbering beast appeared on the horizon and the 14 of us with all our kit were loaded inside.  The bit that did match up was that we had already changed out flights so that we landed at domestic and went right to international to catch the flight to Bangkok.  Well, one hitch, they hadn't brought our bags so Tchouky jump on the back of a motorbike for a death defying journey to the hotel and back.  It all happened very quickly, and then we were gone.

The sad and sobering footnote to all this is that the B1 that flew overhead on the day of our departure was trying to pick up our new Slovenian friend.  He had been caught in a serac avalanche and was lying in base camp with a cerebral haemorrhage.  It took a couple of attempts to get him out but he was not in a good way.  On our own summit push, we had seen about 4 major avalanches in the area and I stood having that chat with my Doc friend whether or not to proceed.  I don't know exactly where he was but somewhere between Camps 1 and 2.

So as I sit here nursing a slight sunburn and wondering when the sensation will come back to my toes, I can honestly say I have no regret about leaving.  Given the decision of: Toe or Top, I chose to keep the toe and return (maybe) to fight another day.  That's all for now.

Dr. D

September 30th - Back at Base Camp

So it was all going really well, I was feeling fantastic. I had set my alarm for midnight, looking for 2 am start. I was either really excited or the altitude was preventing me from sleeping. I woke up at 8:30, then 10, then I was finally up for the distance. I was actually thinking of waking Tchouky to get the thing on the road.


Camp 4 is in a stunning spot, perched on an outcrop of rock with 270 deg views of the Himlayas. The other 90 is of Manaslu itself, there taunting anyone who thinks of climbing it.

At 1:30 a we were out of the tents and on the glacier. We were both surprised at the speed we could maintain. About 20 mins in, I started to feel cold in my hands so I put some heaters in. At about an hour in, my feet were starting to feel cold, especially since I had put some toe warmers in before I left.

I'm not sure what time it was but we eventually tried to stop and figure this out. Funny dances, foot stomping, running on the spot, were all holding hope to figure this out and let us get on with the climb. We went as far as taking a functioning hand warmer and stuffing it in the toe of my boot. In the end, common sense and my wife's love of playing "this little piggy" won out over the summit.

Yes, we did a u-turn at about 7800 m.

When we got back to the tent, I had a nasty surprise; my left foot had blotches all over it, my right was not as bad but all the toes were frost bitten. It took me a good three hours with bottles of hot water to finally get some feeling back in both. In passing I realised that I have lost sensitivity in a few fingers as well. All serious but nothing that will require amputation, the team medic has given me something to expand the small blood vessels in my body and help repair the damage, it doesn't start with a V.

We had a look at a second run at the mountain but it seems the weather will not co-operate, snow and high winds at altitude. So it seems that Manaslu will have to wait...

Sept 29th - Made it to Camp 4 (7400m)

Derek and Tchouky reached Camp 4 this afternoon.  They are resting now and planning to start their ascent to the summit at about 2am Nepal time Wednesday morning.  The weather forecast sounds good - a bit of cloud at 7000m but clear and no wind above that.  Should be a perfect day for a summit attempt.  The climb from Camp 4 to the summit should take anywhere between 5 - 9 hours.  They will have their skis with them and plan to ski down from the summit, hopefully all the way back to Base Camp.  Please keep all those good thoughts, positive karma and prayers for perfect weather heading their way!!

September 28th - Camp 2 to Camp 3

Derek and Tchouky made it to Camp 3 (6825m) by mid-afternoon today.  They will push on to Camp 4 tomorrow and aim for the summit on Wednesday morning.  The forecast for the next two days is supposed to be good.  Please keep the positive energy and good karma flowing their way!! K 

September 27th - Base Camp to Camp 2

After a long day's climb from Base Camp, Derek and Tchouky successfully arrived at Camp 2 (6434m).  The weather has been pretty good (they've had a bit of new snow but not too much) and a number of other groups are also now working their way up to the summit.

Google Earth Camp Co-ordinates

Here are the camp co-ordinates for anyone wanting to follow on Google Earth

Base Camp 4945m GPS 28°35,853N 084°35,591E

Camp 1 5732m GPS 28°35,411N 084°33,677E,
Camp 2 6434m GPS 28°34,752N 084°33,263E,
Camp 3 6825m GPS 28°34,363N 084°32,924E,
Camp 4 7400m
Sommet 8160m

Camps all Set - Plans for the Summit Push

The Camps are all set now:


Base Camp: 4900 m

Camp 1: 5740 m

Camp 2: 6400 m

Camp 3: 6850 m

Camp 4: 7450 m



Things have been going well, and as some might say, all that's really left is to climb the mountain. Weather permitting, here's the schedule:

24-26 Sept: Rest at BC

27 Sept: Leave for C2 (leapfrog C1)

28 Sept: Up to C3

29 Sept: Up to C4

30 Sept: Summit

Sept 24th - Back down to Base Camp

Seeing as we had no headlamps, we had to wait for the sun to come up. Another stunner, with the sea of clouds in the valley. Tchouky has pointed out to me that we're going to bed around 7:30 pm and waking up around 6 am and perhaps this is part of my perception that I'm not sleeping at altitude. I can't say that I wake up exhausted, it's just the long periods of tossing and turning that get to me. My head starts to tap a bit, not a full pound but just enough so I know it's there. Then my mind starts to wander so I come back to some deep breathing exercises which then leads to long periods of wondering if I'm actually sleeping or not. I think its the hypoxic environment that is leading to some crazy dreams as well, if I wasn't so concentrated on getting up and going, I would do better on writing them down.




This was really my first test of the skis and boots together. Between C2 and C1 are all the steep sections. Aside from one moment of fear, it was pretty good. Definitely not the edge control that I 'm used to. It was good to get up early because the slopes are all fairly protected from the wind and at that hour, were all still cold. Toward the bottom, a reality check as we had to cross a serac avalanche that had fallen in the night. From C1 to BC was amazing skiing, the glacier is almost solid out in the middle, compared to the foot track on the side. Reports from yesterday are that two people on foot fell into holes along the way. No suprise I guess, it goes through some nasty areas. We rolled in at about 8:30 am, not bad from our 7 am start. We start dreaming of the ski down from the summit...



So our acclimitisation is finished, we now have about three weeks to wait and hopefully hit a good weather windown. We saw the first teams heading up today, making summit day 28 Sept. There seem to be conflicting weather reports, from all clear to big dump of snow for that day.

Sept 23rd - up to Camp 3 (6850m)

I had what is becoming a typical first night at a new altitude, headache and pounding in my ears. It's becoming more annoying but also does something to the confidence of ascending, not knowing if it will get worse. Funny, as soon as I get up and walk around, it seems to go. We left at about 9 am for C3, a straightforward climb on the skis with little in the packs. There are three Swiss guides in another expedition who were just ahead of us and broke a nice little trail. They were aiming to sleep at C3. I set myself a new goal which was not to stop, I would slow to a snails pace, literally taking steps of 10 cm or less, but not stop unless it was to drink or eat. I was really feeling the lack of oxygen. At one point, I'm not sure what possessed me, but I tried to jump onto some hard snow to break through the crust, making it easier to climb through. I did have to stop here because I felt like someone had tried to rip my lungs out through my nose. The last 100 m up to the pass was tough, this is where the tropical sun gives way to high altitude winds and you finally feel like you're up high in the Himalayas. When we arrived, we had a prime piece of real estate at 6850 m. We crawled inside the tent and after a little snack, actually had a nap. As the saying goes, what goes up... The ski down was funny, well funny now. I was typically all over the place. The high altitude boots have more support, but you do buy them big thinking your feet will swell so my heels were lifting constantly and I was all over the place. The snow was a mix of powder, crust and solid wind blown. I decided to practice my traverses, stop, switch directions, then continue. Even on this programme, I was out of breath until about 6500 m, below that I was just gasping. We rolled back into C2 for the night.




We managed to kill both of our headlamps today, amazing really. It meant for an early night. After the typical gourmet dinner of soup and noodles. I ran my iPod battery into the ground watching "A Fistful of Dollars" then drifted off wishing for a peaceful night of sleep and looking forward to getting back to BC.

Sept 22nd

We woke to another stunning scene, there was a slight crust of snow on the tents and apparently 30 cm at BC. We were lucky that it had been such a low storm. Tchouky left early to chase the porters and I climbed with the rest of the group. As this is the last phase of the acclimitisation, I gave the Sherpa's a good size compression sack with things that were more useful for C2/3. I'm not sure how I did it, but I still managed to get over 20 kg into my backpack which is the hardest physical section of climbing. I quickly got myself relegated to the back of the group, involuntarily, but the pace was nice and easy for me. The last time we had come up empty to this altitude, it had been about 3.5 hours, this time I was around 5. A huge difference and it actually started to worry me until someone pointed out that my pack was so damn heavy. I reached C2 just in time for the sun to hide behind the mountain which is when the temperature drops. I just crawled into my summit suit and was quite happy.

Sept 21st

Breakfast was eggs and toast which for some reason I had not had yet so I went digging in my tent for my jar of Marmite for a bit of a change. You have to understand that being with a French group, the though of putting something other than Nutella or sweet on toast is completely bizarre. I don't think there is a big market for Marmite in France. They were all very curious and I told Guillaume it was just like Nutella but a bit stronger. I wish I would have had a camera for his face as he bit into it...




We seemed to have synced up with the others for the next two days which should make things interesting. Seven of us at C1 for tonight. We had another one of those slow and deliberate mornings, leaving for three days

Sept 20th - Rest Day at Base Camp

Woke up to stunning scenery with a cloud base down in the valley and sun on all the peaks at altitude. Today was the day for our Puja, the Buddhist blessing ceremony of our team and camp. We had planned to do it Wednesday but the moon was not in alignment so it was pushed back. Our Sherpas are all practicing Buddhists so it's really interesting to watch as they performed the whole thing. They had been cooking food and perparing for hours in the morning, pastry and cake for the ceremony, that and the salty Tibetan tea again. We brought most of our kit and anything else we wanted blessed up to a stone altar they had built, aside from the usual ice axe, rope crampons, there was a bottle of Pastis, some whiskey and a few other funny items. At the end, they hoist a mast with prayer flags and rhodedendron on it, the timing was precise, couldn't be done before 10 am. Seeing as we're on the moraine, one of them had to have made the trip down to get the rhodos. We were all given a woven strand as part of this, worn around the neck to help us get to the summit. They also powder our faces with flour for good luck and long life.




The rest of the day was pretty relaxing, seeing as it was sunny and warm most people took advantage of the nice weather and had a shower, well a wash in a tent. I retreated to my tent and watched the rest of a movie. We then had a wicked rain storm late in the afternoon so I crawled into my sleeping bag and had a nap.



Michel has been digging in his food barrels all day, it started with a bit of cheese, then some sausage, then he pulled out an entire leg of ham. Cured of course. Amazing how well some of this stuff travels. David brought some Comte cheese which didn't travel as well, he packed it next to his short bread which now have a distinct and unnatural flavour. Laurence is doing better, she's planning on coming back up tomorrow. She's the team nurse so I think she's been really hard on herself about getting sick.



Dinner tonight was not exactly typical Nepali food, pizza and french fries followed by some sort of gelatine dessert. Amazing at what these guys come up with in a small little tent with a few gas burners. Everyone seemed slighly subdued today, we're all heading to C1 tomorrow so maybe it's weighing on everyone.



I've had a few people send me the quote from Ed Visturs: going up is optional, coming down is mandatory. Yesterday was a new high for me in terms of altitude and I can see how it happens that people are singular focused on the summit and exhaust themselves getting there. I was feeling tired, but really didn't notice it until we stopped. I'm sure I could have kept going but it made me realise how the fatigue is accelerated by the dimishing atmosphere. I guess my case wasn't helped by the two Fig-o-lous I had for breakfast along with the cup of tea. Mental note to self was made to eat a real breakfast before climbing big mountains...



It's now been two weeks and I have to say the time has flown. We've been busy and are well into the acclimitisation. There's some science behind this phase but everyone is different. Based on traditional theory, the earliest we will start our summit attempt is Sept 29. This next trip up will have a night at C1, then up to C2. The day after C2 will depend on how I feel, we will either go up to C3 at 6700 m and spend the night or spend another at C2. I seem to be pretty regular with the headache for the first night at a new altitude which is becoming a bit tiresome but it is a good reality check and preventing me from trying to run to the summit on the first day here.

Sept 19th - Up to 6100m; Back down to Base Camp

19 Sept - The first time I woke up this morning was just after midnight and my head was throbbing. Evidently, we had come up to quickly, perhaps this is the downside of the skis. I guess the simple explanation is that it's part of the acclimitisation process. I did managed to get back to sleep and at 5 am, Tchouky asked me if I wanted to get up. So at about 7 am, we rolled out of the tent. Camp 1 was alive, there were about three different groups heading up to Camp 2 between 6150 and 6400 m. Our plan was just to go as high as possible and then come down to C1 again and spend the night.




My headache seemed to pass and after watching everyone else in gridlock on some of the steeper sections, we decided to sit and wait for a late start. We left at about 9:30 am and headed up. The start is a long up and down traverse, through the glacier, we don't gain much altitude here but it gets us in the right position. The next part is straight climbing, hauling on fixed ropes with an ascender to get up the steeper slopes in the glacier. The fun part was trying to pass the Chinese expedition on a steep slope with about 7 of us on the fixed rope. Clearly a mix of climbers and tourists.We climbed to about 6100 m and then stopped for lunch. We broke out some of the cheese that we brought, travelled really well.



I've always been an advocate of don't do anything new on race day. If you translate this to an expedtion speak, don't do anything new on your expedition. Well, I broke this rule. The comprimise we made with skis is that we're skiing in mountaineering boots but we did find some stiff tongues that attach to make skiing a bit easier. They didn't arrive much before we left so I didn't have time to try. My first go was at 6100 m in some wind blown snow, I skied for about 100 m and then took them off. The downside of this was that I had to walk down most of the way to C1. On the flats, I was back to skiing in my floppy little climbing boots which if we had the video would be an instant entry to a Warren Miller out-take of silly moments on skis.



I was beat so we ditched the plan sleep another night at C1 and came right down to BC. As soon as they rolled out the hot soup, pasta and potato gratin, I thought we were the smartest people on the mountain.

Sept 18th - Up to Camp 1 (5700m)

18 Sept - a fairly relaxed morning with the plan to move to C1 late in the day and spend the night. I was originally going with nothing but then Tchouky pointed out that this was the time to start moving all the summit gear up the mountain. In the end, my pack was about 17 kg. Even with this, we were about 3 1/2 hours to get to C1. On the way, we passed one of the guys from the Altitude Junkies team who was clearly having trouble. On arrival, Tchouky and looked at each other with surprise on the time it had taken us to get up there, perhaps we went too fast?




When I first brought home my summit suit, we played games to see who could wear it the longest. I would start to sweat after about ten seconds and couldn't go any longer than a minute. I once told my nephew Zach I would give him 1 Euro for every minute past 10 mins that he could keep it on. He never made any money out of it. So I found my self in a t-shirt with this North Face parka on and quite happy. This was after sundown at 5700 m. We sat in the tent, eating soup, ramen noodles, and drinking tea planning for the night. The thing with being at this altitude is that everything will freeze over night. So you have to take anything you want to wear or anything with batteries and stuff it in the bottom of your sleeping bag. I stuffed in two bottles of hot water, socks, sat phone, video camera and some fresh underwear. As I warmed up, I peeled off the layers and slowly settled in for the night. I managed to watch about 15 mins of a movie on my iPod before I fell fast asleep.



Bad news from BC was that Laurence was sick and she's headed down to Samagaon.

Sept 17th - trying out the skis

17 Sept - It is amazing, the number of times you can pack and repack and still not know where everything is. I spent a good couple of hours this morning just trying to figure out some sort of system for all my kit. I'm sure I'll only use about half of what I brought but there's not really anywhere to buy anything up here. I think the theory of expanding to fit one's space is true for me, especially in this case as I've exploded three kit bags into my tent. In the end, my system was worthless.



Rumours of a Canadian Expedition are false, it turns out that the cousin of Anseng at the trekking agency is working for another Expedition. On this, there are two Canadian women, one is Helen from Canmore, the other I haven't met. Helen had just returned from fixing ropes up around 6000 m with the Sherpas.



We left early afternoon for a bit of exercise and to try out the skis. My plan is to use regular climbing boots, just a very stiff hiking boot, on the lower sections, and then move to the full summit boot when we're up higher. The main reason is the heat. When the sun is out at BC in the morning, I could be in shorts. Not sure they are proper summit attire though. So after about a 15 min walk up the moraine, we jump onto the glacier with the skis. It's amazing the difference between skiing and walking, even with the extra weight, it's almost effortless going up hill. We reached the Himex C1 in about 3 hrs. Getting back down was another thing. Because we were on the glacier, we roped together, this means managing the skiing in climbing boots while occasionally getting a good yank on the rope as the other guy goes too fast or too slow. The main problem skiing in anything other than ski boots is that you have nothing stopping you from falling straight back. I managed a spectacular wipeout as we were coming back to the bottom. Given that the skis with wipeout turned a 2 hour walk into a 20 min slide, I'll sacrifice my pride any day. Round trip with nothing was 3 1/2 hours.



The others made the trek up from Samagaon today, haven't said much about them but a really good group. Michel, the other guide, Laurence his girlfriend. Phillipe and David, father/son. Guillaume and Alain, two more bankers from Paris. Seeing as we have to spend a good amount of time together, seems like a great mix.

16 Sept - We're here, finally. 4900 m of fun. It's what you think a base camp should be, or at least what I think it should be. We're perched on glacial moraine between two glaciers with a nice stream running beside us. Tchouky explained that it was better to be higher up so you don't get the run off from the other camps, I think we're as high as you can go. There's actually about 100 m difference between the first camp and ours. Given that we will probably be climbing at least four or five times from here, I'd rather do the 100 m just once. I think there's probably a lot of people that get altitude sickness here. In hindsight, what we did was ingenious because we went steadily from 3500 m up to over 5400 m. The classic approach is to arrive in Samagaon, rest for a few days, then come up to base camp. The problem with that is that it's about 1400 m all in one go.


So this morning was a repeat of last week, a crew of porters at the lodge, all trying to get a load. I've always had respect for these people but today it went to a new level. The path out of Samagaon starts nicely, then about halfway it turns and just goes straight up. With their 30 kg, they all just marched on bravely and then turned around to go back home and collect what would be the equivalent of 15 Euros. As an aside, our whiskey drinking friend did show up this morning but didn't seem to make the grade for the run up here.

Unfortunately, when we arrive the whole area was in a bank of clouds so we couldn't see anything. They have all cleared now and we can see the silhouette of the summit and the millions of stars. If I ever do this again, someone remind me to bring a star chart. I'm looking forward to tomorrow morning to see the summit up close.

One of the many things that Kathryn sent me with was a big red notebook with strict instructions not to look at it until I arrived at base camp. She beats me so badly when I don't follow instructions so I have learned to comply. It's a collection of messages from family and friends about the trip. Thanks to everyone who took the time to send something, it was really touching and will be nice to have for the upcoming weeks.



I'm now fully set up on a prime piece of Manaslu glacier real estate, summit views, running water and all the comforts of home. I managed to talk Sean into buying me a luxury therma-rest in Seattle and dragging it up to Canada when we were there in August. Tchouky had told me I should get one for base camp and one for the higher camps. When I asked which one for base camp, he said: "The biggest and thickest one you can buy." So I looked on their website and found the Dreamtime XL, three layers of full luxury. I did raise an eyebrow at the 3.5 kg weight but then quickly thought Tchouky wouldn't steer me wrong. It turns out, Sean had to pack an extra bag to get this thing up to Canada and it barely fit in my biggest kit bag. I am loving it though. Combined with my little therma-rest camp chair, it's like having a lazy-boy in my tent. It's already been put to the nap test this afternoon.



Tomorrow the rest of our group will be coming up from Samagaon, we'll be out on little shakedown cruise with the skis to see how they perform. Word here is that the fixed ropes have been installed up to Camp 2 which is at about 6500 m. We're aiming for sleeping at Camp 1 the day after tomorrow. I'll try and get a couple of pictures up tomorrow, reception seems to be much better up here.

So Far...




Sorry for the lack of updates, seems like the IT department in the valley here is on holiday. That and we were deceived about having AC power up in Samdo so the battery went dead on the computer and we couldn’t charge it until we got back… Here’s what’s been happening:



15 Sept - Rest day in Samagaon. I'm up early and manage to get laundry and some general organising done before breakfast. Our plan is for Tchouky and I to head up to base camp tomorrow with the others following the day after. Word is that the groups that are at base camp have not gone higher than camp one, some fixed ropes are installed but no major progress. So far, there is the Himex, Chinese, Altitude Junkies, a mixed group including Canadians, and one other group for a total of 4 on the mountain.



14 Sept - The day starts well, a few biscuits and tea and then we set off for a Tasa, another peak beside our camp at 5435 m. From below we can't tell which is the actual summit so we decide to climb the couloir leading to a ridge, which we would then follow around to the summit. The approach consists of some grass slopes which we climb in the dark, reaching the bottom of the scree slope at about 6 am. As we reach the ridge, it seems the summit is the farthest peak from us which will add a bit of fun to the day, the ridge looks fairly thin with a few rock features to navigate. After a bit of discussion, we decide to go onto the summit. We sat for about half an hour, straddling the border of Nepal and Tibet admiring the view, we can see a campsite setup on the valley floor as well, seems like we're not alone. After a quick snack, we head back down to camp, total time is about 5 hours.



As we're now out of food, we have to return either to Samdo or right back down to Samagaon. We still have a cache of gear in Samdo so we have to stop there. Tchouky sends me ahead and says, there's a path at the bottom of the valley, looks a bit longer but it will probably be faster. Just head straight down until you hit the river and follow it. I descend through a heard of yaks, there's a couple of stone houses and I find a yak that has managed to get stuck inside one of them. It's a bit wary of me approaching but generally seemed happy to be free. A bull nearby is making funny grunting noises so I walked for a while with a big stone in my hand in case he fancied me.



Once I reached the river, I followed the path along side. The adventure began here, a bridge crossed it but seemed to go no where. There was a well beaten path that was quite steep and seemed to go up for a couple hundred metres. Thinking of Frost, I follow the less travelled path along the river thinking, it's a river, it has to go down to the village. The path seems to come and go and then I'm faced with either traversing a rock face or turning around. I scramble across the rocks and find myself standing on the top of the moraine on the other side and Tchouky waiting for me at the bottom. We reach Samdo at about 1:30 pm, have a quick cup of tea and look for a porter that will make the descent to Samagaon, preferably one that doesn't drink.



We reach Samagaon by mid afternoon to find a nice surprise; the rest of the group will arrive later today. It seems with a national holiday coming up, the porters forced the pace and turned a seven day hike into five. I enjoy my first "shower" of the trip, a nice bucket of hot water with a cup to douse myself. The group arrives around 6 pm and we have our first dinner together since Kathmandu. Lots of stories about the hike, including our skis being left in the bus on day one. Luckily the driver noticed and turned around. Michel even managed to find some funny looking plants on the way up. It's nice to not have Dal Bhat or Chinese noodles for dinner...



13 Sept - Hardly slept over night, either the altitude or lack of air in the tent. The headache tells me maybe its the altitude. We had alarms set for 4 am, I heard them but Tchouky slept right through so I didn't bother waking him. We have a slow morning and enjoy the view, Thandorjee appears with an armful of Rhododendron and lights them on fire to perform a small Buddhist ceremony, unfortunately his English is not good enough to explain it. After lunch, I set out to the lesser peak slowly to see how I feel. I go up 100 m, then stop for 5 mins and keep repeating this. In just about 2 hours, I find myself atop one of the peaks at about 5180 m. Tchouky has joined me and we wonder if anyone has ever been up this, there's three eagles circling in the valley looking for marmots. The map we have isn't that accurate so we start calling the peak Mt. Coco. I feel great so blame the headache on lack of air in the tent. On return, Thandorjee performs another ceremony, this time adding some juniper bushes to the fire. Dinner is again Chinese noodles with tomato soup. I sneak out a bit later to find the gents, amazed at number of stars as there is no moon. I can vaguely see the silhouette of Manaslu.



12 Sept - The morning came fairly quickly and I was surprised how well I slept. After a "pancake" for breakfast, we were packed light for two days and headed up again. Our route took us along the moraine of the Samdo Glacier toward Tibet. Yesterday was clearly the main route for yak traffic as we didn't see a soul. To give you an idea, the valley we went up is similar in size to Chamonix, except instead of 10,000 or so inhabitants, there were just the three of us and some yaks. Thandorjee is like a mountain goat, I was going slow, trying not to earn another headache. The weather is clear this morning and we actually had our first decent view of Manaslu. There is also a peak at about 6300 m which on the map is tempting to climb, in reality its another expedition. We settle in on a nice little plateau at 4650 m beside a spring and pitch our camp, two peaks above us will keep us busy for the two days. The menu is somewhat limited, Chinese noodles and tomato soup, we packed light. Having finished my only book, I tried to amuse myself and stay up a little longer as we're trying for the 4 am start again tomorrow. Not sure what time it was but a yak came to visit us in the night, I heard the bell and snorting as it sniffed at our tents. Thandorjee managed to chase it off and the heard was far away by morning. I didn't know yaks were nocturnal.



11 Sept - I definitely noticed the difference in being in a more remote location. There were no singing porters or anything to disturb us during the night, the closest thing was a Yak caravan at about 7 am. We opted for some basics on breakfast, Oat Porridge, which was definitely basic accompanied with some honey or jam that was made in 2005. Milk is fairly scarce up here. We set out for Larkye Pass, it's quite a ways away but will take us almost to 5000 m and be a good first hit of altitude. We can see the trail and the pass from the village, on the map it's about 12 km away. The map says 6 hours, the guy at the lodge says 5, given that it's not so steep, it won't be that fast coming back. Half an hour in, we decide to turn right and head for one of the passes into Tibet instead, about half the distance and the same altitude.



After an hour or so up the valley, we come across another Tibetan refugee settlement. This place makes Samdo look like a modern metropolis. The stone huts are all build for basic purpose, the have blue tarps as roof cover, if you want to call it that. Outside, there must be 50 yaks wandering around and more higher in the hills. They seem to be drying some sort of Yak cheese outside the huts and we watch as they scurry around trying to get it inside as it starts to rain. It's really mind-blowing to see these people living at 4300 m in half built stone huts just to get out of Tibet.



We turn NE and start the real climb up to the pass. Along the way, a yak herder warns us of Chinese soldiers at the border. When we arrive, they have since left, I feel a pang of regret as I would have like to have seen them. Approaching the pass, it's everything you would imagine, the last 100 m is a scree slope and then you come to a white border marker, place in 1962. There's a few prayer flags but for the most part it's barren. We tempted fate and step into Tibet to find a bit of shelter. Another yak herder tells us the soldiers left a few hours ago so we sit an enjoy the view while we have lunch. On the walk down, Thandorjee shows us a make-shift grave of some poor fellow that got sick and died on the spot. It wasn't even really a grave, they seemed to just have place some rocks around his body and then placed a marker. As we came back to Samdo, Thandorjee couldn't resist helping the poor local girl that had her yak herd split in two. He drove half toward town while she rounded up the rest. They make some crazy sound that apparently the yaks understand, otherwise they just instinctively move when humans get close. I'm surprised that they haven't bred some herding dog to help with the yak trains, I guess you would have to feed a dog whereas the rocks along the way are just as effective and free for the taking.



I was pretty tired after the 7 hour hike and with the first crack at 5000 m I also had a headache. This a good indication that I probably went up too fast. We settled in for a few pots of tea and another Dal Bhat. The plan was now to head NE into a different valley and establish a camp so that we could climb some of the peaks in the area.





10 Sept - Between the singing and rain pounding on the roof last night, it took me a while to get to sleep. It seemed toward the early morning that every time I came close to consciousness, I could still hear the rain on the steel roof so I went back to sleep. Finally, around 8 I decided it was time to get up. The rain had stopped but it was overcast and not great. We had to decide whether to go on to Samdo or stay another night.



The morning entertainment was watching another expedition organise their porters to go up to base camp. Local law prohibits porters from further down in the valley from passing any further than Samagaon. This turned into a bargaining exercise when at one point, I thought it was going to come to blows. There was some old Tibetan with half his teeth missing trying to hang onto a barrel as it was given to someone else. The standard load coming up the valley is 35 kg but from Samagaon to base camp it is 30 kg. So if you can imagine, having to repackage the entire expedition from 35 to 30 kg bits, it takes some time. Child labour here is of course forbidden, but it doesn't seem to stop the locals. It seemed to be the norm that the father would negotiate so many loads for his family and then they would split them up. Sometimes, the kids would follow along with a younger sibling or maybe the food for the day, sometimes they had part of the load. I watched as three generations divided the load and set off. The standard rate to go to base camp from here is about 1500 Rupees, or about 15 Euros. I was told that most expeditions learn the hard way about the loads and how to pack. All of the food is packed in barrels, instinct would be to pack the heaviest on the bottom but they all carry the barrels upside down because it's easier to attach the rope.



Mid-morning we decided the weather was a good as it was going to get so we made the decision to go, as the other expedition had already left, it gave us room to move. The mistake here was that most of the porters were already gone. We asked the owner of the lodge if she had anyone left, she promptly ran up some stairs and started yelling what I assumed was a call for one to come. She had to do this a few times before one actually showed up, an who should it be? Our toothless Tibetan from who couldn't get any work that morning. We managed to negotiate down to 1300 Rupees since it was much flatter than the route to base camp. At about noon, we set off. The walk to Samdo was interesting, the valley is fairly flat here and the trail follows the river. With all the rain, there was a fair bit of mud. Along the way, there is actually a rock wall with a door built into it, this prevents the yaks from wandering too far.



It was about mid-way, we came around the corner and found four small girls that were stopped on the side of the trail, they wouldn't have been more than 5 or 6 years old. They seemed to take a liking to us and followed us for a while, taking the opportunity to practice their English; "Hello..." and a few other pleasantries. They were fascinated with the video cameras, especially when I turned the view screen around and they could see themselves. We kept moving and eventually they lost interest in us and stopped for another break.



We rolled into Samdo at about 3 pm which is about what we had expected. It's a village of Tibetan refugees that it only about 5-6 km from the border with 3 different mountain passes close by that offer entry or perhaps more importantly, exit from Tibet. We had the choice of two lodges. I guess as you go farther up any valley, the traffic decreases and the services offered do as well. In Samagaon, there were at least 4 or 5 lodges and they even had electricity at night. The lodge in Samdo had a solar panel the size of a notebook computer. So we settled in to the Samdo Lodge, seemed like the better of the two, and ordered some lunch. We thought the easiest would be Dal Bhat, a classic Nepali dish. We ordered a pot of tea to pass the time while it was prepared. At the time, we weren't sure exactly where the porter was but knew he was somewhere behind us. It was about an hour and half later that Thandorjee sensed something was wrong and decided to go and look for him. Tchouky and I started pondering what could have happened to him and I think my last thought was I hoped hadn't expired along the way. We saw three people come through the village gate, thought them to be trekkers because one was carrying a large back pack. They came into the lodge and one of them presented us with one of the bags we had given to the porter. Well if that didn't make us wonder... Half an hour later, Thandorjee crested the hill with the other, he had been gone just over an hour. I was trying to figure out what had gone wrong for him to have gone that far. He came in, sat down and explained that he found the porter asleep beside the river on the bags. It turns out, the reason this guy couldn't get a load to go to base camp is because as soon as he has work, he buys some whiskey. I guess he figured he'd drank enough along the way to earn himself a nap by the riverside. Thandorjee remarked: "Porter ok, whiskey no good..." and we all laughed.



So our acclimitisation has begun, we have several possibilities in the area, all look good. The weather will be key as we're now free of any porter issues.



9 Sept - Out of bed at 5:30 this morning to bring the bags down, early breakfast and then off to domestic terminal of Kathmandu. Tchouky had set two alarms, both somehow failed but staggered down just after six wondering why went wrong. I was giving him five more minutes...



The domestic side of the airport resembles more an open air market than a travel hub. There are massive bags of rice, crates of vegetables, palattes of beer and anything else you can think of. We go through three securiy checks and the only thing they are interested in is my water filter. It seems that an ice axe is fine to have inside the cabin on a domestic flight.



On my last trip here, we were arrived on time only to wait until 1 pm for our flight to take off. Tchouky tells me he once had to wait four days for a flight. This morning, we're told that the weather is ok at the landing area but now it has socked in a bit here and we will have to wait. This means anywhere from five minutes to five days. The good news is that if the pilot decides to take off and cannot land on the other end, its a free flight. If we insist he take off and he can't land, another wad of cash changes hands. After about 20 minutes, we're told we're on and ushered to the Fishtail Air van, it's more like a go-cart with a couple of seats. We've weighed in with 90 kg of baggage and told that because of this, they will have to make two runs at the landing zone. Stopping short at around 2000 m altitude, then proceeding with only two of us and one bag. The pilot will then return and take the other guy up to 3500 m. Sounded like a disaster waiting to happen but I keep my mouth shut.



We pile into the heli, it's not Russian so I'm pretty happy, then I see that they have loaded the cabin with cans of jet fuel for the return flight. I ask Anseng if he can give me a cigarette for the flight but he doesn't see the humour...



The area is beautiful, wild and hardly inhabited, I get a quick peak at Manaslu but it only lasts a second. To me, the lack of devolpment is a welcome contrast from the Khumbu valley. The valley walls are all steep with torrents running their way through. We reach the intermediate area and after a quick landing, the Fishtail Air mechanic jumps out with the fuel. It seems we're all going up. The pilot explains he just didn't want the weight but we should be ok. I butt out my cigarette and nod, why smoke when there's no fuel on board?



We put down about a 20 minute walk from Samagaon, Tendoji is very apologetic for this but I would have walked anywhere up to a day to miss the 7 day hike that we just leap-frogged. We stroll the mudpacked path and come to the Mount Manaslu Hotel and Lodge. It seems my memory of these places has not done me wrong. You can see beneath the walls outside and through the floors. The staggering thing is the temperature, it must have been 20C, and we're at 3500 m. As the all the work is done for the day, we have a little stroll around the village. The most interesting thing is watching a house being built. Stone that has been hand carved, is carried up the path and then resized and placed in the walls. There's not mortar, just the mass of the rock, should be an R-value of about -10.



At the lodge, we meet another expedition, Altitude Junkies, I find the name a bit odd. I've met an Aussie, and American, they tell me there is also a Fin, German and a couple of others to make Six. At the neighbouring lodge, we meet the Mexican Expedition, well its a guy and his wife. After killing the rest of the morning, we have a lazy lunch and talk of plans for tomorrow. The afternoon siesta is calling and I settle in for a bit of rest. Funny thing about this time of year, the monsoon is still going strong. I'm rudely awaken from my sleep by the sound of pounding rain on the tin roof.



Tomorrows plan is to head toward Samdo, the next town up the valley. As the main group is now 6-7 days behind us, we will be doing some trekking and small peaks in the area to start the process of acclimitisation. Lucky for us, this will take us right up to the Tibetan border and perhaps up to a 6000 m peak. First it has to stop raining though, it's now 7 pm and still raining hard. I can't believe our luck...



8 Sept - We met our Sherpa today, Thandorjiee (Ten-doe-gee) He's exactly

what I think a Sherpa should be, tiny, unassuming, quiet and so

gracious. Mingma, the boss of the trekking company explains that this

is his cousin, who is also from Pangbouche: "he looks small but he's

very strong, he's been to the summit of Everest five times and Manaslu

once." I'm not sure we could have done any better...

Kathmandu

After a long goodbye with Kathryn, I was on my way. I think it's a
good thing that she's is going off to San Francisco, it will keep her
mind off the fact that I'm gone. She's doing her first triathlon on
Sunday, the Pacific Grove Tri I think it is. As she only entered and
started training about 6 weeks ago, finishing will be a great result.
When she was thinking about it, she asked me what I thought. At the
time, she was thinking of doing the sprint so she asked the guy that
was training for an 8000 m peak and that has done a few Ironman
distance tri's what he thought. I said: "Why don't you just do the
Olympic distance, it's not that much farther…" So yes, she's doing
the Olympic for the first triathlon. It would have been fun to be
there and cheer her on, as I couldn't, I figured the least I could do
was kit out her bike with the fastest gear that I had. For the
bike-geeks in the crowd, she's now riding a De Rosa Merak, with Campy
Bora wheels and some Hed aero bars. Aside from the frame, it's pretty
much the exact bike I used when I was in Hawaii :)

I think the Thai people are wonderful. I flew from London to Bangkok,
then back to Kathmandu. There are more direct routes, but I really
like Thai Airways and part of that is that they are so gracious. One
of the flight attendants actually works in a Thai restaurant when she
stays in London, a friend of hers is the owner. With any luck, we'll
have a few days to spend on a beach in Thailand before we come back.

So we arrive in Kathmandu, it's the same scene at the airport where
you have to line up for a visa. Unfortunately, there were two other
flights that landed just in front of us so it was well over an hour
just to pay our $100 and have a stamp put in our passports. There has
to be a better way. The last time I was here was in 2005, it doesn't
look any different despite the four years and the fact that it is now
a republic. The palace I'm told, is now a museum but there still
seems to be armed guards around the walls. It seems the traffic is
worse and use of horns is some form of continuous communication, even
in grid lock because the horns will definitely make the guy stuck in
the mud move faster. The hotel is basic and the rooms are tiny, the
original plan was for two to a room but that would only have worked if
we didn't have any bags. It's just beside Tamel, the older part of
Kathmandu with all the merchants so it is well placed. As we're
heading into a life of high-mountain lodges and tents, it makes for a
good transition from our nice fluffy bed in London. I like it because
there's a nice little black mutt for a resident dog, he was pretty
happy that I stopped to talk to him.

Thamel is an incredible area, you can buy anything you would need for
an expedition here. Tchouky made the comment that you could show up
naked and find everything you need. Half the fun is bargaining,
although I've seen some people get carried away. We actually walked
out of the tea shop for that last Euro on our 200 tea bags, 7 Eur was
clearly a rip off but 6 Eur was somehow just right. The thing that I
did not remember about Thamel is the smell…

So tomorrow we are off, we should be in Samogaon by midday, then we
start the acclimitisation process. This should be really interesting
as we'll be heading right up to the Tibet/Nepal border before we come
back down and go to base camp. I did get word today that there is a
Canadian expedition on the mountain, well they've already left
Kathmandu, this could be interesting as I'm sure they are wanting to
be the first Canadians as well…

Back to London

Pre-departure… I'm now back in London before leaving on Sunday. It's
actually been a good thing, forcing me to concentrate and pack
everything, well almost everything, a few days before I actually
leave. I'm one of the worst for gadgets and gear but this has taken
it to a new level. Two huge bags of kit, plus Kathryn's bike, plus my
altitude simulator. Not to mention the one bag that I have already
taken to London. These are 120 litre kit bags, big enough for a body.
It's a good thing that a lot of the stuff is just voluminous and not
too heavy. Down jackets, trousers, sleeping bags etc. All just take
up space.

Funny thing about air travel, you never really know what is going to
happen. I had the ultimate Swiss robot check me in flying back to
London, constantly quoting me regulations about baggage weight and
what was allowed. The altitude simulator comes in a big black travel
case and happens to be just over the baggage weight limit. Trying to
reason with a machine is pointless:
Me: I know it's over 35 kg but you took it on the way here.
Robot: The regulations state that any one piece cannot be over 35 kg
and your case is 39 kg.
Me: Yes it is 39 kg. You see the baggage tag on it? It came on the
flight with me about a month ago.
Robot: Yes, but it's over 35 kg.
Me: Right, so why won't you let me take it back if it wasn't too
heavy on the way here?
Robot: Because it's over 35 kg. You will have to leave it here or
ship by cargo.
Me: Your programming is very efficient THX 1136…

Always something, that was the end of my altitude training thanks to
Swiss and a nice 400 CHF bill to get the machine home. You'd think
they would just fleece you and put it on the plane, no, it will arrive
4-5 days later. You have to just laugh.
So back in London I only have a few things left to do. Pack the last
of my kit, hang out with my wife, and drink a bunch of pints with some
friends. As I cruise through Snow & Rock, I try and stay focused, not
hard as I already have at least one of everything in the store. In
the end, I escape with a travel towel and about 5 m of some thin cord.
A nice little send off Friday night at the Sporting Page, our local
pub. Seems like they weren't ready for Tommy the K though, we drank
them out of Guinness and white wine. There were a bunch of the girls
on the white, but just myself, Tommy and one or two others on the
Guinness. Tommy managed to get the last one for free seeing as it was
3 mm below the lip and clearly not a full pint. The evening was full
of well wishes and offers to take care of my wife while I was gone.
Even a card from Charlie advising me not to break a leg, sage advice
from ten year old.

Always something you forget until the last moment. Zip lock bags,
power gels, cheese, hand cleaner, all the little annoying things that
I seem to think off at the last minute. Books, loading the ipod with
movies, the time flies. Finally, at about 5 pm on Saturday it all
comes together. Kathryn has a nice little going away package for me
with cards, books, and a few other essentials. They all get crammed
into the last remaining space. The evening was low key but very nice,
dinner, bottle of vino and then we both fell asleep on the sofa...

7 days to go...

Well as the old cliche says; what can go wrong, will.  I was setting up nicely in my last week of training, I had moved it all to the weekdays so I could spend the weekends with Kathryn, what could really go wrong?  Leading up to this week, I had the last block of four days,Day 1:  Ride 6-8 Hrs, Day 2:  Hike 3 hrs, ride 3 hrs, Day 3:  hike 4-6 hrs, Day 4:  ride until I fall off my bike.  Cal (my coach) had me scale back the risk as we were getting close so any turned ankle, sprained hand, falling rock on head etc were of minimal occurrence.  This meant that all the nice climbing and mountaineering I was doing was now back to cycling and hiking.

Day 1 had a funny start.  I need 6-8 hrs on the bike and conveniently Kathryn is going back to London.  So I drop her at the Geneva airport and then head off to Thonon, which is the start of the Route des Grandes Alpes.  My vague plan is to ride as far as I can on this, then come back on the flats. Vague is a good word because all I really know is that it starts in Thonon.  "Its the Route des Grandes Alpes, how hard can it be to find?" I ask myself.  I find a nice parking spot in the Hospital and set off, its about 8 am.  My first choice is about 15 mins into the ride, Col de Feu or Col de Cou?  A quick check on my phone and Col de Feu seems like its a bit longer so I take it, trying to make my life as difficult as possible.  At the top this first pass, I find a great map, exactly what I needed, only to see that because of my choice I now have 4 more climbs where the other choice had one.

The area that I was in is called the Alpes de Leman and its stunning.  I wind through and finally descend the other side to a town called Cluses and the part of the Route that I know.  What's happened with my early start and nice ride through the trees is that I haven't noticed the temperature creep up to 30 C and I also haven't been drinking.  So I start the climb to the Col de la Colombiere with half a water bottle, thinking I should fill up.

Halfway up the Colombiere, draining the last of my water I think to myself; "I wonder what time it is?",  surprise, it's 12:30.  I'm out of water, seriously hot, and only halfway up a climb.  It's one that I rode with Kathryn on the weekend, so I can't exactly turn around.  She was having problems on it and I had to give her the mental push: "you can turn around if you want, but the top is right there..."  she pressed on.  Suffice to say, by the time I made it to the top, turned around and came back down, I was ready for lunch.  Lunch as in burger and fries.  The problem I was finding is that there was nothing on my road.  Its about 2:30 by the time I find some roadside bar what will serve me a baked ham and cheese sandwich with a plate of fries, two cokes, and two bottles of fizzy water.  The locals at this bar must have had something to talk about for a few days and I could probably go on for quite a while as well.  As I sat licking my plate to get the last of the salt, I was wondering two things; first what kind of lives my new friends led, and more importantly how long it was going to take me to get back to the car.

At this point, I certainly didn't have the energy to climb the roads I had coming over so I was searching for the easy way home.  I was stopped at another roadside map considering my options when some nice guy pulled up and asked me if I needed some help.  He quickly showed me the "easy" way home, the problem that I would find out is that it was the longest way back.  The temperature had now climbed to 33 C and I was feeling like crap, dehydrated and needing to get out of the sun.  I managed to navigate my way through the long way home, stopping for a coke, take a quick pull off a farmer's hay wagon for rest, then finally reaching the Col de Saxel.  The descent down into Thonon was supposed to be simple but it was long.  To cut it short, I found myself on fumes back at the car around 6:30 pm.  My easy little ride had turned into a 9 hr ordeal.  There's only two times that I will break down and eat at McDonalds, a severe hangover and a severe exhausting from a 9 hour ride.  Funny how a a meal laden with fat, salt, and calories will turn your life around but it works.

Hiking is a funny word for I've been doing.  First I'm back down in the valley floor here at 1000 m altitude, then I'm also carrying half the house in a back pack to get a better workout.  I have a standard route with minor variations straight out of the house here, up to Flegere, then further up to the top of the Index chairlift which is at about 2400 m.  My pack has 120 m of rope, 2 litres of water, some Figolous, a shell and a fresh t-shirt.  The first two are purely for weight so the pack comes in at about 15 kg.  Kathryn was going hiking with a couple of friends on the weekend and I tried to tell her she should take it as training for her triathlon, she believed me for second but I couldn't keep a straight face.  Start the watch and out the door, 2:20 minutes is my best time for the ascent.  People stare when I pass them because I'm basically running up hill, dripping with sweat.  The nice thing about this route is that you can go one way, there's a chairlift and cable car for the return which really saves a pounding on my knees.  A quick lunch break and I'm off on the mountain bike, great trails here in Cham and you can quickly string together any length of ride and never be too far.  Also nice to be in the shade after the sauna ride on Day 1.  Feeling lazy, I swing by the Italian deli and get some Cannelloni for dinner.  As I 'm lying in bed, I can feel something is just not right somewhere in my digestive track...

By Day 3, I'm starting to feel a bit of fatigue, or at least I think its fatigue.  I'm slow starting and don't get out the door until about 11 am for my long hike.  I was trying to get up to Le Buet, a nice hiking peak around here that it just over 3000 m.  The problem with this route is that the path is horrible, nice choice for a low risk route, sprained ankles must be common here, loose rock, water, all the ingredients.  Common sense gets the better of me and I turn around at about 3 hrs, the 2 hr return gives me enough time to meet the goal of the day.  I drop by one of the local restaurants for a quick meal.  By the time I'm back at home, the funny feeling I had the night before, combined with the bit of fatigue is threaten to become something else.  My belly is rumbling and I've made far too many trips to the bathroom.  Kathryn tells me to go to bed and sleep it off.  A couple hours later it all becomes obvious and my plans for the next three days take a bit of a U-turn.

Yes, one of those nights, either food poisoning or some kind of flu bug.  Certainly not 24 hr flu, because it lasted 72.   Three days either in bed or on the sofa, never more that 5 metres from a toilet.  I watched every movie in the house and was reduced to watching Letterman make fun of Paris Hilton on YouTube, which is a really funny interview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liJbE71DK20  


I was pretty happy when Kathryn showed up after day one, being sick by yourself is not fun.   My diet was water and Mango Sorbet and she could sit in the car long enough to re-supply, one of the many thankless jobs that she was saddled with, thank you wifey I love you :)

So there you have it, with 7 days to go I seem to be on forced rest.  Nothing I can do about it but I am feeling better.

D

Glaciers

The Argentiere Glacier is almost 9 km long and 1.5 km wide in the widest spot.  It's been there for thousands of years and will be there for thousands more.  Glaciers are amazing masses of ice, capable of telling such a story, and every so often, they spit out some tourist that tried to prove Darwin wrong.

I'm standing in our backyard here in Chamonix;  for anyone that hasn't had the pleasure, it is one of the most sublime places on the planet.  I have a glass of wine in my hand that some American claims is perfect, by some coincidence, there's a British woman that agrees.  I would never try and tell someone that wine or anything else is perfect, it happens to be subjective and personal.  To me, wine is simple, you would either buy the bottle again or you wouldn't.  I would definitely buy this one again.  It's not the wine that is capturing my attention, it's the river.

We have this boulder in the stream that creates a small eddy behind it, the eddy is our dunk pool.  From the hot tub, it is a short dash to a nice 3 C glacial stream, the Arve.  Due to the warm temperatures, the Arve has been higher than usual and deposited just about the right amount of silty sand behind the rock, creating a nice little beach.  You see, the Arve is almost exclusively glacial run off, where we are it is from the the Argentiere and Le Tour Glaciers.  A bit further down, the Mer de Glace dumps it share from the Mont Blanc Massif.  What strikes me as I stare at it is that it doesn't even know I'm here.  I'm sure there is some militant global warming geek that's about to tell me that it will be gone in 5, 10 or 50 years, but he clearly can't do the math and interpret the laws of thermodynamics.  The thought that leaps into my head, is that some of the water going by me has been waiting for 10,000 years or more to be reintroduced into the cycle of nature.  It's on its way to Lac Leman, then onto the Med.  Somewhere along the way, it will get picked up again and fall as precipitation.  Maybe some of it will get caught in a thermal current and end up at the bottom of the Atlantic for another 10,000 years or more.

So what?  Well I think my point is that we're basically irrelevant.  I'm about to travel half way around our planet to climb a mountain and I'll be walking over some of the biggest glaciers in the world.  Why?  I guess its part of what makes me tick.  People have told me lately that I have a good life, I can't argue with that.  I think I feel sorry for the people who don't know what makes them tick.  The thought that really sticks with me is that once I'm gone and my grandkids or the next mutation of the human race is standing beside this river, it still won't know we're here.  Enjoy it while you're here.

D

14 Days to go...

The clock is ticking and we're now a mere two weeks from the departure date.  This is leading into the last real push for training, four days, 6-12 hrs each coming up.  I've now scaled back the risk factor, no more climbing or high mountaineering, just plain biking and hiking.  Why?  Because it would be the perfect lead in to a country and western song to get injured right now and have to cancel the trip...

The last week was on the intense side as well.  A long hot bike ride, two days at a mountain hut climbing, more climbing, then more climbing, followed by a couple of days off.

One of my standard rides, Col des Montet, Barrage de Emosson, Col de la Forclaz, generally 3 1/2 to 4 hours for me.  I think due to a bit of jetlag and having a week off, I felt like I had a piano tied to my ass while I was riding.  Actually started to worry me.  Even more the next day, we walked into the Envers des Aiguilles hut, about a 3 hr hike, and I had to go take a nap after lunch.  It all started to come together after that nap though.

Saturday afternoon, La Peige, a short route, about 250 m vertical only about 5 mins from the hut, rated as 6a+ and pure granite.  The view from the top is always fantastic.  To add to this, there were ice/rock slides non-stop across the valley from the Tacul.  Funny about the huts, the food is never fantastic, but I can never get enough.  Envers is at about 2500 m, slept like a baby, well with the exception of about 20 mins where my neighbour jumped on me and then someone was snoring so loud they woke everyone in the room up...

Crack of dawn, literally, and we were fed, watered and on our way to La Fleur du Mal, a slightly longer route in the area.  What was incredible was the heat at this time of day, even at 2500 m, 6 am, it must have been 20 C.  It's 500 m vertical, mostly in cracks and again, pure granite climbing.  Up to 3000 m at the Deuxieme Point de Nantillons.  Quite a bit more physical than the previous day but we were still down in about 5 hours, just in time for lunch and a leisurely stroll back to Montenvers to catch the train down.

Feeling a bit tired, I thought something in Italy would be a nice change.  It was also so hot up there that it was becoming a bit dangerous so I was off with my friend Benji for a day there.  We left Cham at 7 am, thinking that a 3-4 hour climb would have us back at the car for noon.  Couldn't have been more wrong.  The route we chose was not only hard, but wet, making some sections close to impossible.  It was a long corner route and several sections had water running freely.  To boot, once we were out of the shade, it was about 34 C, probably more in the direct sun.  The bar owner thought we were crazy when we finally got down and found a place for a drink; two cokes, a large bottle of water, two ice creams and whatever else you can give us.  We couldn't stop laughing at the old italians in a card tournament there, constantly yelling at each other, I wish my italian was better.

The last day of the push was the Arete des Papillons, straight above Chamonix.  Luckily, this is north face and we were in the shade the entire morning.  Aside from some obnoxious American guide, the route was fantastic.

So there you have it, time is going so fast now, I'm still looking for the best pair of mitts to take as well.  All in the details right?

D







www.livestrong.org

22 Days to go...

So the countdown continues.  After about six days of fighting with bad weather and trying to adapt to sleeping in an altitude tent, I was on my last bit of rest before I leave.  Three days of fishing in BC on the St. Mary’s River just outside Kimberly.  A short trip, too short, that requires me to stealth in and out of Calgary without telling most people I was there.  A nice evening with my inlaws for brother-in-law Fraser’s birthday, then off to BC.  A stop to see the Croasdale’s in Columbia Lake, then onto Kimberly.

Fraser’s birthday was really fun.  I came straight off the plane from Frankfurt and was 

off to    Heritage Park for an eveing on the Moyie.  As I didn’t grow up in Calgary, the Moyie was new to me.  Complete with Jazz Band, food and cash bar, we cruised the expanse of the Glenmore Reservoir for 2 hours.  I was so thankful for the cool fresh air of the Calgary summer evening, that was all that was keeping me awake.  Funny thing was, about 15 minutes into the evening, this old friend of mine walks up the stairs, Matt Coffey.  Sorry for the aside...  Matt and l lived together in residence about 20 years ago, 2nd Floor, Rundle Hall at the University of Calgary.  We sort of kept in touch, random meetings in Calgary for a few years, then nothing.  About a year ago, I was going to meet Kathryn and her office for dinner in the west end.  Given the time I had, I either went to the restaurant about ten minutes early and had a drink, or went to her office and walked over with the gang.  Three quarters of the way through my Gin and Tonic, Matt walks through the door.  He ended up joining us for dinner and we had a good catch up.  Random meetings with old friends are great.  

One of the highlights of the evening was winning the trivia contest.  Twenty random questions about the Moyie, history, and maritime knowledge, the Abbott family + me was 14/20, enough for a tour of the wheel house.  Most of the passengers looked at each other quizzically as we changed course randomly and the ships horn was sounded.  A few minutes later, my proud mother-in-law Carol, descended the stairs from her stint as pilot with a wide grin on her face.

Next we were off to see Ken and Anne at Columbia Lake.  Ken has been a friend and mentor to me for the last ten years or so, starting when I was a keen graduate student.  but more interesting is that he’s always been a keen climber and outdoorsman.  He is also an  avid collector of old books.  Scanning his collection, I found a nice little book on Climbing and Mountaineering written in 1956, three years after Sir Edmund Hilary summitted Everest.  Complete with a chapter on ski-mountaineering, I am tempted to mix up his recipe for wax which contains:  Stockholm Tar, Resin and a Gramaphone Record.  Ken was kind enough to give me “The Alps as seen by the Poets”, a collection of various works about mountains published in 1912.  Sad that it was such a short visit.  

The three days of fishing on the St. Mary's was great, the weather was a bit tough with some thunderstorms but still, fishing is always a great was to spend a day.  Mike and Brian, our fishing guides, were fantastic as always.  Brian was so good, he even managed to catch the biggest fish.  Sean made the trip up from Seattle, always great to see him.  Morgan and Lisa came out from Vancouver as well, first time for them fly-fishing which is always fun.  Lisa went home with a bit of a war-wound, she hit herself in the face with a fly, then nearly pierced her ear.

So not much about mountain climbing today but I figure there’s lots more of that to come...  I'm sitting here in Chamonix, staring at Mt. Blanc on a beautiful morning.  Probably worth the trip in the next couple of days.

Where is Manaslu?

For those of you a little more technically inclined, there's another expidition that has a nice Google Earth App:

Manaslu

If you need Google Earth: Google Earth

Preparation so far...

As my mother will tell me, "you need to train for something like that...", perhaps overstating the obvious. I've been on the ropes with achilles and ankle problems for the better part of 2-3 years now. The good news is that some minor surgery back in December seems to have solved this. I spent most of the winter in Chamonix, it's easier to count the time I wasn't here in fact. Getting back into shape was always going to be a long road, when I look at some of my pictures from my triathlon days its hard to imagine what happened.

One of the highlights of the winter was skiing the North Face of Mt. Blanc, we couldn't have hit a better day. Not only was there little wind on the summit, a micro-system had dumped about 60 cm of fresh snow. It was a great day, dropped by helicopter at about 3800 m, then about a 3 hour hike to the top. Followed by almost a 4000 m descent as we skied right down to Chamonix.

I think the turning point, meaning when I actually felt like I was getting in shape, was when I rode the Route des Grandes Alpes with a good friend of mine, Guy Townsend. We rode from Megeve to Menton in three days. The last of the three being the toughest, 200 km and just under 5,000 m of climbing, which took us about 12.5 hours. Man was my ass sore after that...

Since then, I've done a ton of great climbs, both classic rock and mountaineering. Some memories that stand out are the Aiguille de Midi to Aiguille du Plan route, a first test of my pre-acclimatisation and where I witnessed some classic mountain stupidity by a pair of British tourists. There had just been an accident in Chamonix so crevasses and general safety was at the forefront of my thoughts, not that they are ever that far...

Here's how it went:

Me: there's alot of crevasses here, you may want to put some distance between you

Them: Ok, thanks. Do you know if you can get to the refuge from here?

Me: which refuge?

Them: There's more than one?

Tchouky: yes, and the snow is not stable. Your only way out from here is to turn around and go back.

Them: Ok, thanks.

About an hour later we watched as the mountain rescue helicopter came to pick them up and all I could think was perhaps Darwin did have a point...

Early July was a great indicator that we were getting ready, the Kuffner Ridge in the Mont Blanc massif. It runs up to the summit of Mt. Maudit and is a mixed of snow and rock. The summit of Maudit is 4465 m. After a shocking 1 am wake up, we left the Refuge des Cosmiques. The route would take us across the Glacier du Geant and back round up to Maudit. Unfortunately, the weather had come in a bit which prevented us from bolting on the climb to Mt. Blanc. I think we were both surprised as we passed most of the other climbers and found ourselves back at the refuge for about 10 am. Needless to say, I had a pretty good nap that afternoon. Another classic alpine safety moment as we pass a pair of climbers on the way down: "Phil, you didn't tell me it was going to be this hard!" says the second in the group. I start thinking to myself, is there anyone I really don't like so much that would drag them up Mt. Blanc and tell them it was easy?

So those are the highlights, toss in a bunch more riding (followed the TdF, a great weekend in Cannes), climbing and altitude work and I'm starting to think I'll be ready. I've just finished setting up my altitude tent so all my sleeps from now on will be from 2000-6500m.

D

Manaslu

Here it is; Manaslu, the 8th highest peak in the world standing at 8163 m. In March 1923, in an interview with The New York Times, the British mountaineer George Leigh Mallory was asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, and replied, 'Because it's there'. I don't really have a better answer than this as to why I'm going.




I'm going with my friend and guide, Tchouky, with whom I've been skiing, climbing and mountaineering with him for about 4 years now. We talked about climbing Cho-Oyu last year but the situation in Tibet has made climbing there a bit uncertain. As this will be my first high mountain ascent, the peak needed to be on the moderate end of difficulty, i.e. not a technical climb. I find it somewhat ironic that people use moderate and difficult in the same sentence when talking about a peak over 8000 m.




We will leave on September 6, with a return booked for October 20. The schedule allows for the long approach trek as well as a good weather allowance for climbing. Manaslu is somewhat famous for large snowfalls in the climbing season, I read a report from the spring of this year where there was 1.5 m that fell on the base camp overnight. On the advice of Keith Sanford who was there in 2007, I set out to find a set of skis that would suit the climb. We're still working on this. Best case on timing will leave us with a couple of weeks to spare in Thailand, worst cast is having to push back our return.


I'm going to try and post a bit about my training and general preparation, then I hope to keep it up during the climb. From the start, I need to say thank you to my lovely wife who is putting up with me while I prepare.










Map of Nepal














Relative Location of Manaslu























Manaslu Region