The Final Attempt

Chuck and Dave left base camp today after a final reconnaissance of the Abruzzi Ridge from Advanced Base Camp and getting another weather forecast. The weather conditions have been severe, and they decided that the potential weather window of three days with another storm coming in on the fourth day would not be safe or sufficient for one last attempt at the summit. They would need a minimum of three clear days with a couple medium days on either side to consider climbing higher.

They headed out with a plan to hike over the Gondogoro La to Hushe,which translates to hiking over a high alpine pass to the next valley and the village of Hushe. This is a different hike out than the way they went in. Hushe is the village where most of their local support team and many of the porters live, and they have been invited to visit with them in their homes.

Andy recently hiked out on this route and reported that it’s ‘not to be taken lightly.’ The trek over the pass involves hand lines anchored by wooden sticks up a crevassed sometimes steep slope, almost qualifying as an icefall. On the other side, there are down-sloping slabs, fixed with ropes that are well-anchored to do an arm rappel, but loose rocks are everywhere. That all said, the rest of the hike out is quite beautiful and alpine green compared to the way they hiked into Base Camp.
 Andy was met by a representative, Ghulam, from the team’s logistics agency Karakoram Magic Mountains (KMM), in Hushe, with royal treatment. He had a grand meal, and a special jeep ride out. A really excellent job was done by KMM.

Thursday, August 21, 2008