Camp 1 Rotation

September 10

The first rotation on the mountain will bring us up to Camp 1 and back.  From our look a couple of days ago at Crampon Point, it shouldn’t be that big a day.  As it turned out, this was a major underestimation.

We awoke to a little fresh snow on our tents and a sky that looked menacing.  The weather here is quite dynamic so every day we expect a mix of sun, clouds, mist, and rain. 

Breakfast was a bit earlier than normal and we were off by 7:45am.  We’re all wearing a full climbing kit including harness and 8,000 meter boots.  What was a reasonable day hike on Thursday plus a bit of rock scrambling at the cliff seemed much tougher with my cold stiff monster boots on.  We took a brief rest at Crampon Point after putting crampons on and then headed off onto the snow.  The fixed lines start right there and the route for the rest of the day was covered in crevasses. 

The idea behind having fixed lines on the mountain is that climbers can move safely, more efficiently and at different paces.  Each section of line has an anchor picket pounded into the glacier with a spacing something like 50-80 yards depending on the terrain.  We have two safety tethers tied to our climbing harnesses and one is always attached to the fixed line with a locking carabiner.  If a climber were to fall into a crevasse, their body weight would be held by the fixed line, tether and their harness and they could climb back out fairly easily with help from their teammates.  Since there are so many climbers on Manaslu this year that I’m expecting there to be fixed lines for most or all the way to the summit.

Not long after we begin traversing the snow, the clouds lift, and the sun begins to poke through.  The first feature is a fairly steep 100 ft ascent onto the expansive crevasse field.  This effort warms us up and the solar radiation becomes more intense.  In our normal lives, some sunshine while walking around outside in the winter on snow is enjoyable.  At these high elevations, however, the heat can become overwhelming quickly.  Our group strips down to the thinnest base layer and applies sunscreen on all exposed skin or so we think.  We receive direct radiation from the sun and almost as intense, reflected radiation from the snow.  This means our foreheads under the brims of our hat/helmet combination, the underside of our chins and noses, etc. can all become quite sunburned.  If you look closely, all the dark shadows behind us in the photo are crevasses. 

Our route takes us through the zones of glacial compression as much as possible for safety and the next section shows that clearly.  We have a solid half mile of safe uphill walking before we traverse to the right and through a more heavily crevassed part of the glacier.  The route from here traverses right, then onto the snowy shoulder and then steeply up and around the back side of the big rock face and onto the snow dome on top where our Camp 1 is located. 

We arrived at Camp 1 at about 2:15 and I’m feeling a big haggard.  The elevation here is 18,967 ft so another 3,000 ft elevation gain day.  We carried our big sleeping bags up today to stash them for the next rotation during which we will be sleeping at Camp 1 then the next day climbing up to Camp 2 for a new high point after which we will return to base camp.  After dumping our loads, we take a little time to rest, drink and eat before heading back down.  Everyone is dehydrated and ready to get back down to thicker air and dry clothes. 

Traveling downhill goes much more quickly of course but the warm day has further melted the snow so we’re traveling in loose slushy footing at least 6” deep.  During the steeper sections, it’s a mix of plunge steps (digging heels in first) and boot skiing.  The latter isn’t recommended with crampons on because the likelihood of putting a point into your calf or catching one boot on the other for a downhill face plant is higher than acceptable.  Eventually we get back to the big flatter section of the decent and wind our way through the crevasse field. 

There are some lively crevasse crossings and bridges but, in those sections, my focus was on safety for myself and my teammates rather than taking photos.  We are much more comfortable with them on the return trip as we become desensitized to the yawing gaps below our feet.

Back a base camp around 5:30 after a ten hour day and I’m fairly well spent.  The focus is on rehydration and forcing dinner into a stomach that isn’t interested.  Conversation in the dining tent is a bit more subdued than normal and then, one by one we all head to our sleeping bags and call it a day.