.wish you were here (part 3/3)

“He who climbs upon the highest mountains laughs at all tragedies, real or imaginary”

I hesitate. Should I or shoudn’t I. The choice is killing me. My bladder is protesting. I have to get up (again). It’s 3 o’clock in the morning and there is a line for the toilets. I can’t believe it. I have to go outside because I just can’t keep it up. It’s -10°C and I am standing in my t-shirt watching the moon litting up the summit of Everest. What an epic pee. Only 3 hours later I get up for real because we need to get ready to climb Kalapathar: a trekking peak of 5550m. This is great to get acclimatised and I am looking forward to it. The climb is going really well and in less than 1,5 hour I reach the summit. I am not tired, my body is getting used to the altitude. Pumori (7161m) is in the background and all of the sudden you feel so little. And so seems your achievement reaching this summit. Patience, patience. This is all part of the training. ‘Learn to walk first before…..’, yeah, you know the saying. On our way down we discuss the route for tomorrow. Choices need to made. They predicted snow for the following few days but we need to cross the Kangma La pass at 5535m to get to Chukkung. This reminded me of Gandalf having to decide whether to take the pass of Caradhras or take the long way down through Moria. We decide to take the long way, we could not take the risk being caught in a snowstorm.

I wake up the next morning, the windows of our lodge our frozen and indeed, it had been snowing all night and it is still falling down. It is cold, but finally, I could use my Mountain Hardwear down SL parka jacket ! These things are hot. Snow goggles and La Sportivas  on, and off we went. On the map it looked like an easy walk of 3 hours down  and 2 hours of moderate height gain up. After 2 hours I start to feel really bad. I am going through my medical checklist in my mind to see what is wrong. Altitude sickness: no. We just came from 5550m and are at 4620m now, so impossible. My stomache is acting really bizar. I am losing my strength quickly.  They dose me with Immodium and Cyprofloxin. Holy crap, what is going on ? It was hurting so bad I almost couldn’t walk. Frustrating. After 5 hours I have to swallow my pride and ask Pasang to carry my backpack for the remaining hour. I must have eaten something wrong earlier today.  My body is not happy and is demanding for fruit, vegetables and vitamins. I immediatly go to sleep.

I still can’t figure out what was exactly wrong with me then, but the next morning I was feeling alright. Strange. Today we stay at Chukkung to refresh our ropeskills and learn how to tie a prusik with down mittens on. But seriously, that’s impossible.

I was excited for the next day because this is where the real expedition starts: we head off to Island Peak basecamp at 5000m. We repack our kitbags to reduce the weight to half and only take what is really needed. The trail is quite and we pass no more than 3 teams. To route up is a garden of boulders and I want to climb each an every one of them. Later. I must concentrate and minimize my efforts to be fully charged for summit day. After a few hours we arrive at basecamp and with the sun being out, I take off my softshell and enjoy the rays of vitamine D on my skin. We are at 5080m but it is not cold at all. The basecamp almost looks abandonned. I enjoy the environment and soak it all in. But I can’t sit still and every excuse to gain some extra meters are good to go out there. I climb up the ridge to Lake Imj. What a view. I take more pictures of our tents and go to sleep.It’s -23°C inside. Tents looks so cool.

Good times coming up because we move to high camp of Island Peak at 5600m today, our final point before attacking the summit. We are very lucky with the weather and the sherpas say a little prayer to have the same weather tomorrow. As usual, not being able to sit still, I scramble up a ridge to have a look at our basecamp from yesterday. It all looks so tiny. I have my final meal before the summit: lentil soup with rice, curry, potatoes and vegetables. Finally, I got my vegetables. This was so good. What a meal. Shortly after dinner I go to sleep, clock set at 1:00am. Oh crap, I just can’t sleep. I am overexcited. My top baselayer is killing me and I wisely decide to take it off. Countless thoughts are flashing through my mind, including the Kili flashbacks. This was it, I am so close now. ‘Hello’, says a gentle voice outside my tent. It’s Pasang. I didn’t sleep a minute. ‘Time to get ready, we go in 30 minutes’. Great. Headlights on. I literally almost trew up my porridge (I just can’t eat it) and off we went.

I am the only one of the team who is not wearing plastic boots and I am so happy for it. The scramble up the first section goes smoothly and the others already envy me for my comfortable boots. Thank you La Sportiva. I have to make a little compromise and have colder feet. After an hour or 2 we reach a small ridge: this was crampon point. The change-over goes relatively unclumsy and before I know I have a figure of eight around my waiste and am attached to 3 other team members. Time to cross the glacier and make our way through the numerous crevasses. We are at 5850m but we lose a team member to altitude sickness. A sherpa needs to go down with him, so we are left with 2 sherpas. I am feeling really good and I enjoy it to the fullest. The sun is spreading its beams over the glacier and we take off layer by layer. I am left with just a t-shirt, soft top and soft shell. I changed my down mittens for liners. This was good news for the ropework. We are at 6000m now. This is the highest I have ever been and the hardest part was to come now.

We fix our lines and attach the jumar, gradually we make our way up on the icewall. This was good fun actually. Island Peak is climbed by around 60 people a day, 100 a day during high season. We are the only team on the wall and the sun is out. This could not get better. After 4 pitches we reach the summit ridge. Wauw. This was mountaineering. We fix our safety lines for the final bit, only 3 pitches to go now and 150m to go. The final pull on the rope and there it was: Island Peak summit at 6189m. I made it. I just couldn’t stop smiling. Congratulations to everyone. Hugs, celebrations and a lot of pictures backed up by stunning 360°C view on Lothse, Baruntse and Ama Dablam. There are no words on how to describe how epic it is here. I want to stay.

Unfortunately, at some point, you have to go down, so we set off and clip in to abseil down. It takes us a few days to get down to Lukla. We party hard to celebrate. That was it. Island Peak 2011. What’s next? I think I  already have a next in mind..

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