Island Peak (19.11.2008)  

© Hannah Vickers

Panorama from the head wall on Island Peak, facing directly toward the Amphu Laptsa pass and Ama Dablam to the right corner of the picture

After the exceptionally fantastic ascent of Lobuche East on my birthday, we had just one more peak to complete the 4-week trip around the Khumbu region of Nepal: Island Peak.

Wednesday, 19th November 2008: Chukung to Island Peak BC
After sleeping like a log for a decent 10 (or maybe even 11) hours, we began our journey to Island Peak Base Camp from the tea house in Chukhung under increasingly overcast skies, so it didn’t feel as warm as the previous day. It was a short 3-hour walk, which was immensely busy with climbing groups in comparison to the BC for Lobuche East. Once we arrived there was a luxurious mess tent waiting for us to dive into for hot drinks and lunch! It was kitted out with big, roomy chairs and a table laden with a huge selection of instant hot drinks :-) Amongst the selection of hot drinks were pots of Bournvita, Horlicks, hot chocolate, coffee and fruit teas and even some honey and pineapple jam! Why exactly this had to appear towards the end of our trip we couldn’t quite figure out but it was definitely comfortable camping! To top off the excitement of the mess tent discoveries we had a lunch of tomato-noodle soup, cheese& tomato toasties, fresh salad and chips and finished off with a fruit cocktail for dessert. Unbelievable! If that hadn't been impressive enough, the dinner was equally amazing as the lunch with the usual starter of soup and followed up with a choice of spaghetti, vegetable spring rolls and boiled cauliflower and carrots. We went to bed feeling very full after having walked virtually nowhere!

Thursday, 20th November 2008: A day around Island Peak BC
After what had been an average night’s sleep, I pottered over to a freezing cold mess tent in search of hot drinks at about 7am. Most people were still dozing away in bed so it was pretty quiet and a bit lonely around the camp. Today was day designated for resting and building up energy supplies for the summit day, so everything went along at a very laid back pace; breakfast dragged on until at least 10am, after which I decided to brave the strong wind chill outside by donning my waterproof/shell gear and taking a cold hike up the slopes of Island Peak to look over the valley. I managed about 20 minutes of being outdoors before quitting and bombing it back down to the tents to get some respite from the winds again. Much of the rest day entailed drinking hot drinks, lying in the tent and more eating a large supper in preparation for our summit attempt the next morning. Again, it had been decided that we were doing it from BC and not establishing a high camp. Although I didn’t really want to go to bed on a full stomach, it was very difficult to resist the tasty pasta, tuna veggie momos and other fresh boiled vegetables being served up! But it would at least be substantial fuel to get us up the mountain early the next morning!

Friday, 21st November 2008: Ascent of Island Peak from BC
Throughout the night, all I could hear (even with earplugs shoved inside my ears) outside was constant battering and pummelling of the wind against our tents. And all I could think about was that perhaps someone might come round and announce that the summit attempt was called off because it was too windy. We had a spare summit day in the itinerary anyway. It didn’t happen though. At 12.45am, Alys (my tent partner) and I heard her alarm sound and I reluctantly poked my head out of the sleeping bag in a secret hope that the rest of the group would be in the same frame of mind and not in the mood for getting up either. Again, that didn’t happen either. Everyone else was in the mess tent for breakfast at 1am sharp – except for Team Faff, a.k.a Alys and I. We were still inside our sleeping bags and debating whether to bother getting changed or not. I just had no motivation to get out into the cold air and up for an alpine-start summit climb. Finally though, when I decided to emerge from the bag, the zip snagged itself and I couldn’t get out! Ironic really. It was 1.35am when I made it over to breakfast for a pancake and mug of coffee and hot chocolate. Alys and I tagged on at the back of the group with our climbing sherpa and Cio, and plodded at the achingly slow pace being set by Lakpa, or whoever was behind him at the front. The wind was still howling and beating down on us all the way up with no let up in strength. Every stop was extremely cold and not enjoyable and the pace was just too slow to stay comfortably warm, despite wearing 4 layers of clothing.

Anyway, we progressed up the several hundred metres of rubble on the lower slopes above BC before finally reaching the start of a rock/ice ridge at the break of dawn. As we stopped to gear up with harnesses, ropes, helmets and crampons, several of the group were struggling just to stay on their feet against the wind and I personally felt it would have been sensible at this point to turn around there and then. Even Cio questioned Lakpa about it. But we carried on roping up in 2 parties and set off up the ridge. Shortly after, we’d stopped again to check up on each other. It was probably a good thing that we did; Syam seemed very ‘out of it’ and when I asked him how he was, he commented that he was having problems seeing out of his left eye. His down jacket was completely open because his fingers were too numb to zip it up himself, so I insisted on doing it for him. It would have been stupid to leave it undone in the cold conditions we were in. At this point I think Cio realised it was the end of his summit attempt and told him to go down with one of the sherpas/porters. The rest of us continued onwards and upwards as the sky lit up and glowed with vivid colours of reds, orange and purples as the sun rose. It was gutting that I couldn’t stop to sort out my camera and take photos. Cio, myself and Gelu went ahead of the other 4 (Lakpa, Bev, Dave and Alys) but they started to lag behind. We stopped temporarily near the start of the fixed lines to allow them to catch up, but mostly because Cio’s toes were very cold and she wanted to get her feet out and warm them up properly..... so cue Gelu and his armpits; Cio literally begged him to let her put her feet under his arms! It was an interesting sight! Meanwhile, I stood around to take sips of my icy cold water (not nice) – so cold it really hurt to swallow and also scoff down a cereal bar without breaking any teeth! Oh, and take photos of course – while there was the opportunity.

Once Cio was reasonably happy that her toes had regained consciousness, we made our way up to the fixed lines on the headwall, which led up to the summit ridge and the sunlit snow slopes. They were really starting to beckon now, it was so cold having been in the dark or shade for so many hours. By now I was wearing my down jacket over everything else and was just toasty enough. Fortunately the effort of jumaring under the sunshine kept my temperature quite cosy and we puffed our way upwards at a good pace. Well, it was pretty good for that altitude anyway! As Cio hit the summit ridge though, it looked like she was having to cling on for dear life just to stay upright. Coming to think of it, she wasn't really standing up anymore but had resorted to crouching low to keep moving anywhere. The full blast of the wind streaming over from the direction of Lhotse was really on us harsh. It was quite possibly the most severe wind chill I can ever remember being exposed to. With the exception of Svalbard, maybe. Progress along the ridge became near-impossible and pretty much non-existent for most of the time. After about 50-100m, Cio called it a day and suggested we quit. Actually it wasn't a suggestion it was more of a command! I managed to snatch a few photos of the stunning mountains surrounding us before we hurriedly made our way back down the ridge to the top of the fixed lines again.

We were ultra-surprised when we bumped into Alys and Bev near the bottom of the final section of the head wall. According to them, Lakpa and Dave had gone back down to camp before reaching the fixed lines because Dave had also complained about the same problems with his eyes that Syam had. But because of wind, Cio basically told Alys and Bev that they shouldn’t try to go any further i.e. She wouldn’t be going with them. Bev was particularly disappointed because she was feeling well and felt she could continue higher. Nevertheless, they returned with us anyway, and one by one we descended the fixed lines again until we hit the bottom section. Whilst waiting for Gelu to descend and collect in the ropes, we sat in the sun and snow eating crackers and other snacks lying around in our lunch bags. Once he had arrived, we roped up again to cross the glacier and make our way towards the rock ridge and the never-ending slopes of rubble and scree below.

It was much faster-going, compared to earlier in the ascent and in seemingly no time at all, we were de-gearing and taking off helmets, harnesses and crampons again. The remainder of the descent was now simply walking, but it dragged on forever; the site of high camp was actually quite an unappealing place now we’d seen it in the light and I was quite glad that we’d not bothered with setting up a camp here. It had just turned midday when we’d returned to base camp again and after doing a check on Syam and Dave, Mingma ushered us into the mess tent for soup and hot drinks. And endless mugs of them too! Some of us thought there would be a ‘proper’ lunch to follow on but there wasn’t anymore to come which was sort of disappointing....... I think maybe our expectations had been raised by the very generous meals we’d had here so far! Alys and I came up with a solution which involved sitting in the mess tent until about 2pm, eating muesli with hot water and milk powder, then made a joint decision to instigate a bit of tent faff to pass the time until dinner. I even made the effort to have a wet wipes wash and moisturising session for my very dried up skin. My skin was so dry that my legs stung after washing them with the wipes, but it was nice to feel partially cleaner.

Once the sun had dropped below BC the temperatures plummented as usual and a dive back into the sleeping bags became absolutely essential, but then it felt like the utmost suffering to have to get back out again to either use the toilet or go to dinner later on! Can’t actually remember what we were served for our last dinner, but it was finished off with a very pretty cake to celebrate the end of the trip. Bedtime followed at about 7pm because we were all too cold and felling a bit pooped to hang around in the mess tent for any longer.

Saturday, 22nd November 2008: Island Peak BC to Pangboche
After what had probably been the coldest night yet, we had breakfast at 8am, and packed up promptly afterwards to leave BC. It was a shame also because the winds this morning were virtually non-existent and would have made ideal conditions for a summit attempt; I still don’t know why the first day wasn’t postponed to use the spare summit day we had. Our final destination for the day was supposed to be Dewuche, by retracing the same route back through Chukhung to Dingboche, and then continuing down the same valley. We lunched at Dingboche, at the same tea house as we’d stopped a few days previously, but instead of going all the way to Dewuche, we ended up at a tea lodge in lower Pangboche which was a comparatively posh 2-storey brick building, with proper flushing toilets and a TV and electric heater in the dining hall instead of the usual stove/fireplace - a proper modern Himalayan tea house!