Page 11 - 2023 AMA Spring

becoming extreme and, despite being well equipped with reading material, I noted my diary: ‘boredom level extreme.’ The next day was clear at the 2am alarm and visibility stayed good enough for the deep snow trudge across the glacier to reach the foot of a steep slope leading up to the crest of the NE ridge. At this point the clouds rolled in, visibility became zero and it started to snow again. There was no option but to stop and wait for better visibility. By 9am we were back in our sleeping bags where we stayed for the rest of the day. ‘Boredom now intolerable’ I wrote in my diary.
The next morning it was still snowing and visibility was again zero. Both of us were keen to give Chombu our very best try but it couldn’t be denied that conditions were far from ideal. We had passed the night intermittently discussing the pros and cons until Victor echoed my thoughts: ”We could be climbing up into a little difficulty here.” It was a typically understated observation. The situation just didn’t feel good. Above us was the start of steeper ground, the clouds were down, we couldn’t see where to go, avalanches could be heard nearby, our food supplies were being used up, the climbing conditions were awful and to cap it all, Victor’s hand was a worry if things should get gnarly. We have a saying between us that “we should keep going up until there is a very good reason to go down.” Even though we filled numerous hours with circular discussions the end result was never really in doubt.
Our tracks on the glacier had completely disappeared but at the first hint of a clearing we gingerly followed a GPS track that Victor had recorded through the crevasses back to our bivouac at the top of the approach couloir. Snow continued to fall resulting in us judging the couloir to be too avalanche prone and leading to us spending yet another day and night in our sleeping bags before we decided it was safe enough to descend with the security of an abseil rope.
Back at base camp it was raining, the forecast was for much of the same, Chombu was loaded with a lot more snow than when we arrived, our visas were running out and Victor’s hand was still wrapped in a boxing glove type bandage. It was time to admit failure.
And so how do I feel now? Well, we certainly gave the new Berghaus Extrem range a good testing. Beyond that, one side of me feels quite proud that we made decisions that kept us safe in dangerous conditions. The other side is very aware that Chombu remains unclimbed.
After our attempts in 2019 I wrote: ‘in two trips not once did I crampon up any firm snow or swing my axe into any firm ice – the weather was rubbish, the climbing conditions were rubbish, the permit situation was rubbish.’ After three trips I could modify that statement by acknowl- edging that I have now cramponed up one slope of firm snow. That’s the only change though; the other comments are as applicable now as they were then. And I now calculate that, over the three
trips, we have spent more time lying down listening to snow on the tent than actually climbing.
Returning a fourth time is not for us. The Chombu weather gods have beaten us.
MICK FOWLER
Mick Fowler has balanced holding a full-time job with being a family man and a
leading figure in the climbing world for over 40 years. He continues to climb despite a cancer problem which resulted in removal of his anus and rectum in 2018.
In the UK he is renowned as a leading adventure climber with numerous ground breaking first ascents on chalk, shale, London drainpipes and other cliffs not previously viewed as suitable for climbing. Throughout the 1980s and 90s he was a leading pioneer of Scottish winter climbing, his record being 11 consecutive weekends from London. He was the first ascensionist of the first Scottish winter climb to be graded VI and some of the first rock climbs in the UK to be graded E6.
In mountaineering terms, he has been a regular expedition climber since 1982, specialising in technically challenging, eye catching lines on peaks between 6000m and 7000m. His first ascents now include celebrated lines in Peru, India, Yukon, Tibet, Xinjiang, Sichuan, Nepal, Russia and Pakistan.
He was voted the Mountain- eers’ Mountaineer in the Observer newspaper, has won three Piolet d’Or awards (the Oscars of the moun- taineering world) and was awarded the King Albert Medal for mountain
achievement in 2012. He has written four books about his climbs and won several literary awards including the John Whyte Award at the Banff Mountain Festival in Canada, the Best Book prize at the Bormio Mountain Festival in Italy, the Grand Prix at the Passy Book Festival in France and Best Outdoor Book at the Golden Rhino Awards in China.
Until retiring in January 2017 all his climbing was done in his holidays from his job in the UK tax office where he held the position of Assistant Director of Shares and Assets Valuation.
He has served as President of the Alpine Club, is a Patron of the British Mountaineering Council and an Honorary Fellow of the University of Cumbia. He lives in Derbyshire, England with his wife Nicki. They have two grown up children, Tessa (31) and Alec (28).
With no visibility, avalanche danger, poor conditions and dwindling supplies continuing ever upwards did not seem a sensible plan
ARMY MOUNTAINEER / 11