Page 13 - 2017 AMA Winter

15 May 17
night - a shell scrape would have been a five star bed in comparison.
17 May 17 – Towards Camp 3
The respective rope parties moved off in the morning for an acclimatisation walk, hoping to see if we’d get as far as a prospective Camp 3 site, possibly around 6500m.
Unfortunately everyone turned round before this height, with the sherpas caching fixed rope etc at c.6250m, and hoping set up the camp there, as there didn’t appear to be a good camp site above. Jonesy had felt funny on the way up, and on returning to camp made the really tough medical decision to go no higher, I’d lost my long term tent mate and rope mate...now there was nine.
The summit plan was refined, with the tempo being forced on by an apparent weather window - we were not going to bother moving to Camp 3 as the site of the dump seemed too low to offer much advantage, and the sherpas thought that it was not possible to establish a camp on
the angled slopes above. Therefore the next day we would set off for the summit in a single push.
18 May 17 – Summit attempt
We assembled outside the tents at 0300, with the plan to depart at 0330. With characteristic kindness, the sherpas had baked and carried an iced birthday sponge cake from base camp for Liz. After a slightly muted rendition of ‘happy birthday’ (it was early, cold, and breathless to be fair) the candles were blown out and we started roping up. Eddy, who was one of the AMLs, told Al that he felt too rough to go for it....and then there were eight. Al quickly re-organised the ropes.
He took on two pax who weren’t feeling great, effectively sacrificing his chance for the top by wanting to give the two the opportunity to go as high as possible knowing that they’d likely have to turn round. I was ejected from Al’s rope into what was left of the ‘Blades’ rope, along with Liz from Eddy’s rope. The ‘Blades’ had received their name from the high near SF content, and general thrusting up the hill.
Load carry
Birthday on summit day
Climbing Base Camp
We moved up carrying only sleeping bags and personal gear, the super tough sherpas carrying the camping gear and most of the rats. The tents had been disturbed by the high nightly winds, so a bit of adjustment was required before we moved in. ‘Sleeping’ at this height unsurprisingly was not pleasant. That night Jonesy and I thought that the tent might collapse in the wind. Indeed, a pole had broken, so the next day we moved into other tents.
16 May 17
The whole party of 12 had a rest day, but sadly Will and Shaun showed increasing signs of AMS and descended to base camp....and then there where 10. The rest day was spent largely confined to the tent in high winds. As the days passed we wondered if the monsoon had come early and we’d lost our chance for the top. I spent a truly miserable night jammed under Toms trekking poles, wedged diagonally across the tent in an effort to stop it collapsing, in c.15% of the tents volume. If there is a purgatory or hell I sampled it that
Ex AMA60 full team
ARMY MOUNTAINEER 11