Day 11 14.12.22- a day of two tales and a turn of fortune. Hello High Camp!

December 14, 2022

AM update:

Bad luck continues or maybe we’re paying the price of a bad decision. Today was our planned move day to high camp and we woke up to massive clouds and wind; probably the worst day we have seen so far. All of the waiting for good weather and listening to the forecast translated into nothing. We are stuck here and I am running out of time. I cannot but feel that our very cautious approach is not working. We could have gone yesterday when the weather was pretty ok and have a good chance for summit day tomorrow. Instead we are stuck here. I am afraid in a day or so will be forced to make a decision whether to abandon. Very unhappy…..

PM update:

Well, my lucky star or some other gods are protecting us. At around 1 pm weather changed; sun came up and we decided to make the move. 5 fixed lines, 200m each for a total ascent of 1000 meters from 2800m to 3800m. And all with a 25kg pack on our back. We left at 3:30pm and arrived at camp at 09:30pm. 5 hours on the fixed lines and 1 hour up the ridge on a not too steep incline but still uphill. This day compared to one of the toughest ones on Denali. We arrived thoroughly exhausted. The weather held but a bit of wind and the temperature dropped 5-10C. Once on top of the fixed lines everything changed and the wind started blowing.

I had a couple of incidents where my hands froze over in a couple of seconds and I had to “run” to the tent to try and reactivate circulation. Extremely painful.

At high camp it is dinner in the tent. A bit of warm soup and we collapsed in the sleeping bag. Cold night- everything is in the sleeping bag to keep it warm.

And I mean everything.