Page 10 - 2023 AMA Spring

GUESTWRITER
Much as he was insisting that he thought everything was ok, his hand was pouring with blood and sported three deep cuts.
“It could have been worse” he said. “There don’t seem to be any breaks or tendon damage and I could have landed on my head.”
I looked at the damage and felt that the expedition was over.
A sizeable area of skin had been torn deeply away from the base of his index finger and there were deep lacerations around his thumb. I just couldn’t imagine climbing technical ground with injuries like that. Victor was remarkably calm and in a ‘let’s see how it pans out’ mood, but nevertheless it was a subdued couple of climbers who returned to base camp. Our kitchen boy was despatched to the army camp at Tangu to get more medical supplies, advice was sought from doctor friends in Europe and, with some trepidation, Victor was patched up and plans were made to start our climb “as soon as realistically possible”.
As it happened the forecast changed, snow fell at base camp and an immediate start was out of the question. My diary entries became increasingly gloomy. ‘10cm of snow at base camp now, forecast has worsened, Victor’s hand looks terrible, I just can’t see how he can climb. We’ll have to go back up the slope to get our kit but my guess is that we will have to back off as soon as
the climbing gets technical. Must be sensible.’
It snowed for four days at base camp. On the fifth day Victor’s hand was looking slightly better, the fresh snow in the approach couloir had avalanched and we judged it safe to return to our kit. Starting very early saw us reach our kit dump at 9.30am. From here it should have been a few hours across a crevassed glacier to the foot of the NE ridge but, initially the hot Himalayan sun and then snow and poor visibility prevented further progress. When it was not snowing continuously this was a weather pattern that we were beginning to get used to. Dawn would often be bright and sunny enabling spectacular cloud-free photography. But after not very long, snow showers would increasingly merge into continuous snow
in the afternoon and throughout the night, clearing just
before dawn.
This meant that the accumulated snow tended to blanket earlier snow and a good freeze/thaw was almost never achieved. The end result was wonderful views and photographic opportunities first thing in the morning but soft, snowy, exhausting and often dangerous climbing conditions.
And so, with it not possible to continue, we spent 9.30am onwards lying in our little tent hoping that we would be able to make up lost ground the next day. The next day we set the alarm at 2am for a daylight start ..... and then delayed matters because it was snowing. We eventually set off wading across the glacier at 6am only to quickly conclude that visibility still wasn’t good enough and the only sensible thing to do was to retrace our steps before they filled in. By 7.30am it was snowing again and we were back in our sleeping bags where we spent the entire day. At 11pm it was still snowing and I made a diary entry that the approach couloir would now be so loaded that we were trapped
until it had some time to consolidate. The time spent lying down was
NE ridge (left skyline) from top of the access couloir. Too much walking for me – and a lot more snow than on the west face
The interminable wait for good weather at least gave Victor’s hand a chance to start to heal
10 / ARMY MOUNTAINEER
Victor’s hand was not looking in good condition for a multi-day Himalayan climb