Page 23 - 1998-99 AMA Winter

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which provided essential additional sup­ port. We crossed the Pumari Chish in two hours, again being forced in every direc­ tion except the one we wanted to go. This time the climb out was even harder than the previous glacier. We pressed on for another hour to find a decent campsite. While climbing the talus we missed a cru­ cial side path which would have saved us a lot of time the next day. Most of the cairns have been placed by groups travelling in the opposite direction, making them almost impossible to see. The next day was to be the hardest yet.
The guidebook indicates that there might be problems on this leg but does not give any indication as to the severity of the problem. We walked for an hour before reaching a massive landslide area. The whole side of the mountain had disap­ peared and had left huge vertical gullies, which seemed uncrossable. We recced both up and down and at first it appeared that there was no way to across. Just as hope was fading a number of small cairns were found descending extremely steep moraine slopes. A small path zigzagged down to the edge of a vertical moraine cliff. Again it seemed as though there was no way across and no way of descending to the glacier below.
Then a short way back up the edge of the first gully we found a large boulder. This allowed us to descend into the bed of the gully. This provided a few exciting moments as huge boulders were dislodged from the powdery moraine. We all sur­ vived the 70m abseil and continued down the gully bed over more massive boulders to the edge of the glacier. Once again we only just missed a thin trail which would have taken us back up and past the land­ slide. Instead we attempted to navigate along the glacier.
The first problem was a huge ice cliff which barred our way. We turned right, left being vertical m oraine, and headed towards easier ground! It was only a few minutes before we realised that our next few hours were going to be tough. This time our way was blocked by glacial pools, ice cliffs, ice caves and crevasses. We worked our way around the obstacles as best we could, this was a laborious process. At one point Moctor slipped while trying to get past a glacial lake, he immediately disappeared up to his shoulders. We tried to find another way around but to no avail. The rest of us then had to run the gauntlet of the pool. After what seemed like hours we faced another glacial lake. This time there was no way around the vertical wall
of moraine preventing further progress. We pondered the problem for a while and decided to try and leave the glacier by climbing above the cliffs. Pete went up to recce an escape route but could only find more vertical moraine.
I went up to where Pete was and after removing my rucksack I was able to climb a short pitch of the moraine. It was time for the ropes again. I climbed back down, picked up the rope and set off back. Each time there was even less to climb on and it was getting steeper. After arranging a belay I started bring the team across. I told them to use their ice axes. Moctor came first and proceeded to demolish the rest of slope. Oily managed to repair some of the damage by hacking a few footsteps. As the remain­ der crossed M octor set off to find a way out. This he did and we all made our way up the moraine to an area we believe was Ullum Burum Bun. This final section seemed to take forever and by the time we dropped our rucksacks we had been on the move for over nine hours.
D uring the early hours of the m orning I was woken by the pressure of the tent on my face. It was snowing heavily and the tent was threatening to collapse. I quickly knocked the snow away and told the others to do the same. In the morning we awoke to half a metre of snow so I decided we would have a rest day. By lunchtim e it had stopped snowing and we were able to get on with some much needed admin. Taff, Jonah and Robbo even built a snowman.
Our next objective was to be the Jutmo Glacier that was reputed to be worse than the previous two. The track out of Ullum Burum Bun was good to start with and fol­ lowed a narrow ridge. Progress was good but then slowed down as we crossed vari­
ous landslide areas and slopes of loose boulders. Then we reached the edge of the glacier, it looked a real mess with a thick covering of snow. Again we tried to spot a route through the shambles but knew that we were in for a hard time. The mandato­ ry loss of 150m in height to get to the glac­ ier was very steep having recently been swept by a landslide.
Four hours later we were on the opposite side of the glacier. Robbo was feeling extremely fit and broke trail for the climb out of the glacier. The track was interm it­ tently covered in snow or disjointed through landslides. There were occasional cairns to follow but we generally found ourselves gaining and losing height every fifty or so metres. Since crossing the Jutmo we had not found a suitable campsite and we had been trekking for over ten hours. It was past 1800 hrs and it normally got dark at 1930 hrs. Just as I was considering a bivi we approached a small campsite which was partially covered in snow. There was just enough room to squeeze our six tents in. By 2000 hrs we were all fed and closed down for the night.
More snow plodding was to follow the next day and it was getting very tedious. Every couple of steps would end in a body-jerking drop as the snow gave way and it was an exhausting battle to recover the standing position and composure. We could see where we were heading but it was taking ages. Our route was constant­ ly losing and gaining height and it seemed as though there would be no respite. Approximately 3 km from where we planned to stop we had to cross a wide val­ ley. This was covered with a thick layer of deep snow, which had several streams hid­ ing underneath. This leg was even more exhausting than any previous section and
Army Mountaineer
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