Crampon Point

 

September 8th

It’s great to be at base camp and living at 16,000 ft.  This elevation will be our baseline for the next few weeks, with the summit almost 11,000 ft above us.  Base camp life has a routine to it and I feel at home here.  The company we’re climbing with is CTSS and I’ve known the owner Mike Hamill since 2009.  Kriss and I have climbed with him on a few expeditions in the past, and some years ago he branched off from his employer to develop his own brand of mountaineering guide company.  Mike’s philosophy is that climbers do better on the upper mountain of they’re well rested and well fed.  As such, he has definitely raised the bar for base camp comfort.  Even something as simple as a custom larger tent with straighter sides and taller ceiling make living here for a month much better. 

Today will be an active rest day, so the plan is to have breakfast and then hike up to what’s known as “crampon point”.  This is the place where the rock stops and glacier travel begins so time for climbers to put their crampons on.  It’s a nice morning with high clouds and intermittent views of Manaslu.  We hike for less than an hour and then reach a spot where a fixed line has been placed.  This is a steep rock ascent followed by sloping slabs with water running over them.  We’re still a mixed team of climbers and trekkers and not wearing any gear so our team places another rope with knots to help get everyone up safely.  A fall here could be fatal. 

Beyond the fixed lines, it’s 10 minutes to crampon point.  From here we can see most of the climbing route.  In the photo below, you can see climbers heading to Camp 1.  The route ascends to the right and out of view all the way to the base of the smaller peak on the right.  From Camp 1 to Camp 2, the route ascends back towards the left through the icefall section which will be the most technical part of the overall climb.  Camp 2 is about halfway up the bowl or saddle section and out of view in a flattish area.  For Camp 3, we will traverse up and to the right towards the wall of the shorter mountain, somewhat below the true saddle.  The route to Camp 4 is a steep ascent on the skyline ridge to a point on top of the shoulder barely visible through the clouds.  This will be the steepest part of the climb.  From Camp 4, it's mostly a ridge ascent to the true summit which is directly behind the pinnacle seen in the photo and much higher.  

After hanging out for a while, we head back to Base Camp.  It’s an easy walk except for descending the fixed lines which we all do carefully and successfully.



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