Page 13 - 1998-99 AMA Winter

Expedition
we could and took stock. Looking up we could make out a large cornice and a good deal of wind-slab waiting to come down, some­ thing we judged may happen quickly once the sun hit the face. • Discretion won through and we backed off to try another route, Gryff catching some air time on decent to add insult to injury.
The other side of the mountain was still a closed book, and we knew there was a chance of finding alternative routes and opportu­ nities. Delicate negotiation with the pony drivers led to agree­ ment to carry our gear on four ponies over dangerously narrow trails to the far side of the range towards the South Glacier. Rough ground prevented the animals from making the whole route, so a hard load carry was needed to move the kit over the moraine wall to the bottom of the glacier at about 5000 metres. Gryff wasn’t well and returned to Base Camp later the next day, but Rob, Craig and I, accompanied by the LO who was along for the experience, all made an alpine start up the moraine and along the glacier.
Craig and the LO descended before first light with acclimatisation problems, but Rob and I carried on to the headwall forming the South Ridge of Kang Yissay I and the North Ridge of the unclimbed Kang Yissay III, then moved together over an easy bergschrund and up steep snow to the ridgeline. Here we found classic alpine mixed climbing as we followed the ridge south to emerge on a sharp snow arete leading to the summit of KangYis- say III. Snow conditions were good at the start with firm cram- poning, but they deteriorated rapidly halfway along, parts of the ridge sloughing off alarmingly to the glacier floor on either side. Protection was negligible. Some 200 metres from a summit esti­ mated at approximately 6200 metres, we reluctantly made the deci­ sion to turn back.
Fresh food brought in to Base Camp on a re-supply run made Base Camp a disarmingly pleasant place to be, but we forsook it all for one final push for the summit of Kang Yissay I, this time along
the South Ridge. A one-day load carry up the East Glacier stocked an ABC on snow at the bottom of a long scree slope, which we occupied the following day At 0045 Gryff and Rob set off towards the ridge despite unsettled weather. Andy and I, ready an hour later, decided that the weather was against us and chose a retreat to our bags. The first pair continued, finding a line by head-torch over mixed ground to make the ridge by dawn. The rest of the day was spent moving together over increasingly difficult ground to a final gendarme 40 metres from the summit. There was no obvious routearound.Facedwithunexpectedlyhardclimbinglateinthe day and the certain onset of bad weather, the decision was made once again to make a tactical withdrawal.
Expeditions to the big mountains tend to be characterised by a lot of effort put in by the many but glory, should it be won, only for the few. Running small-scale Himalayan expeditions can mean that the whole team has the chance for glory but also shares responsibility for failure. In this case it was the latter, but although we had not bagged our route or reached our summit we knew that the decisions to withdraw had been the right ones. Of course, we all got lots from it personally, and managed to add to the corporate knowledge of the mountain system and produce a scientific result worthy of publication, something that pleased the BMC, JSET, M EF and our sponsors. Peaks in the Kang Yissay area are ideal objectives for small groups of mixed ability looking for interesting and accessible climbing during the Indian monsoon with scope for branching out to little-explored country on either side. If you relish austerity, there’s plenty of choice at 8000
metres. Personally, I can recommend sticking to mountains with green Base Camps!
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