8/15: Well, the planned trip to C2 didn’t happen, because at 5am the weather at ABC was (relatively) warm and foggy, with a few inches of fresh wet snow overnight. Things didn’t improve, so at 7AM I left with a 21 kg (45 lb) load of rope and headed back to BC. The fog and fresh snow made the icefall quite pretty, but I didn’t have anyone to take pictures of.
Our night at ABC was slightly comical. There were six of us–the grizzled vets that made up the current summit team–and between us we had one stove, one cup, and about four sleeping bags. We obviously didn’t take the jaunt to ABC (and then to C2) very seriously. Actually, most of the missing gear was already on the hill.
On the walk back to BC I saw a number of tracks of a very small animal. What it is and what it eats, I have no idea. There’s no vegetation at all on the main glacier.
I surprised Deedar at 9am (he was expecting a day or two with no cooking). He quickly whipped up a cheese omelette, and I made the coffee and cooked my own bacon (remember, Muslims don’t eat pork).
Later this morning, two pleasant surprises: the other guys brought down about 13 kg of gear, saving us one trip to ABC, and I found my radio, which had slid off of the top of the tent the day before. I know, don’t put your radio on the tent…
I’ll hold off on posting anything else until something new happens. We still hope to leave BC on the 18th.
Mike