Chronicles of Kangchenjunga 5 : Ascent to Camp 4
10th May 2019
At 5:00 PM, entire Giripremi team, all Sherpas, members from other teams, assembled in our dome tent for Pooja. It was one of Giripremi’s rituals to worship Lord Ganesha before heading for the final ascent. It was a unique get together, under one roof, there were Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Christians. All with a singular goal.
Our plan was to leave on 11th at 3:30 AM. So that we can clear the rockfall region on the way to camp 2, before 8:00 AM. I tucked in my sleeping bag. It was my first 8000er ascent to be, and the moment I had been waiting for almost a year, had now arrived. All the efforts in training, fund raising, huge support by friends, family, blessings and well wishes from elderly… it was time to repay. I knew I could do it. Well acclimated, well rested, I was in my finest of the health so far. I already began to feel that the summit was now in my reach. However, long and unknown journey was to be explored yet. So, I avoided sweet thoughts of possible outcome, and began to tick mark my checklist mentally. I didn’t know when I fell asleep until at 3:00 AM, Mama woke me up.
At 3:15, I readied my backpack and kept it outside our dome tent. Geared up with headtorch, harness, carabiners, descender, jumars, rope slings for self-anchor, Helmet, and boots, I entered in the dining tent for breakfast. There was an unusual rush at basecamp. Physically, everyone was busy finishing the morning chores, gearing up, and having breakfast… Mentally occupied with the thoughts of what we were up to.
At 4:30, Rupesh first set in. One by one, everyone left the camp. Mama, Finjudai were standing at the temple. Mama’s eyes were filled with tears, and heart full of pride and confidence. As I hugged him and touched his feet, I realised how novice, vulnerable I was when I had entered Giripremi five years ago, and how strong, mature, and confident I am today when representing Giripremi in the conquest, I never thought I could. He and Finjudai both, hugged me warmly and blessed for success and safe return.
On the slopes, there were some patches where new route was established. Especially near the rockfall area, it was entirely new route. Still the rock fall threats continuously loomed over us. After safely crossing the rock fall region, Anand, Jitu, and I waited in the open snow field of Camp 2, for Prasad to appear. He was way behind us and needed to be monitored. One should quickly move through the difficult section. Of course, we must look after our buddies, but in treacherous terrains of steep rocks and narrow trails, waiting for our buddies, monitoring them, can only mean inviting dangers for both. Hence, we swiftly crossed that difficult terrain and waited for Prasad in safe region. From there, we could also keep an eye on rock fall and monitor him in case if he needed any help.
By 10:00- 10:30 in the morning, we all were in camp 2. By afternoon, we were prepared with all our gears, extra clothing that we had left in previous rotation, and suddenly weather began to change. Within next 5 minutes, strong winds began to rattle our tents. Dome tents were being reshaped in acute angles as the wind force was inexorable. With the winds, snow was being furled everywhere, leaving visibility nest to nil. Forget visibility, but the boots, food ration, helmets, cooking stoves, which we had kept in vestibule, got packed with powder snows gushing through the small openings of our tent doors. It didn’t stop with the winds. It was a blizzard at camp two, which had a potential to destroy all tents, stocked gears, and ration. Further, lightning and thunders continued to horror everyone. There was no way we could go out. We had to only wait patiently till it stopped. Even in those conditions, Phurba was so concerned about serving us food. Disregarding the blizzard, he rushed to our tent with ration and cooked some soup and noodles for us. Impact of outside horror was considerably reduced after having a much-needed meal. Late afternoon, it slowly calmed. In the meantime, Bhushan contacted mama through walkie-talkie. He narrated the entire incidence to mama. On the other hand, mama had an unusual update on weather and subsequent movement. Mama asked Bhushan to stall further movement by a day. He was in touch with the route opening team high above camp 4, where they were still working on fixing the rope. At that speed, he believed that we may reach higher camps earlier than expected and end up spending extra day at higher camps waiting for the route to open. In such case, climbers would consume vital supplemental Oxygen for no reason and ultimately, for the summit push, entire team would fall short of it. This would have led to a colossal failure of expedition due to improper planning. At the same time, Mama had a discussion with Ganesh regarding weather forecast. As per Ganesh, team should move up for a night of 13th May. While Mama, out of sheer intuition, asked us to wait for another day as he believed that on 14th night, weather would be better. So, now, a binary outcome of expedition - success or total failure, solely relied on whether we stay at camp2 or not. We had always believed in Mama’s decision making and so did that day. Sometimes, while recalling at the memories of expedition, I keep wondering of what would have been a course of expedition, had the communication not established through.
Next day was spent hydrating and feeding ourselves. It was the longest day of the expedition. Sun was beating upon us. Outside it was scorching heat and inside our tents, was no less than a sauna room. Discomfort at its best. Again, this simple stick of ‘enjoy the discomfort’ hit us badly in the worst possible scenario.
13th May 2019.
We left for Camp 3 (6800 m). It was a long march. From this point onward, each step was my highest altitude gain.
For the first time we were sporting our down suit. One might wonder why down suit at lower camps, but instead of carrying them in our bags, it was convenient to wear them. When we left camp 2, it was around 6:30 in the morning. So, wearing the down suit wasn’t a bad idea. However, as the day grew with clear sky, these down suits, which couple of hours ago were much needed protection from cold, turned into a liability. We removed the top portion of the suit and tied it around our waist and continued further. Camp 2 to Camp 3 was quite a demanding climb. Through the maze of huge crevasse field, jumaring, rappelling on multiple times on steep sections, we were trudging towards the camp 3. Altitude, dehydration, were slowing us down. But great thing was, we all walked together. Taking photos, videos, cracking jokes in between. Thus, our team’s morale was always high. There was one inclined traverse of around 100 ft, where the rope was missing. We were traversing over a relatively steep section. Above us laid the slanted face with loose snow, and just 150-160 ft below, was a huge crevasse waiting to swallow anything tumbling down towards her. As per my learnings such routes are prone to avalanche, as we were cutting through the snow field. Had the snow above us been unstable, entire face would have sent layers of snow/ ice slates sliding down upon us. Thankfully, while going up, nothing came down. (However, when we were coming back after two days, an avalanche had already occurred on the same face and a huge block of ice had rolled from hanging glaciers far above. That block was stopped just at the starting point where rope went missing.)
Soon the clouds gathered, and it began to snow a bit. It wasn’t much but it did offer some respite from sweltering sun. Plummeting temperature as we gained altitude, resulted in snow freezing between the gaps of the rope and jumar. Many a times, it happened that we, out of exhaustion, tended to rely on jumar, and the jumar slipped. It happened as the ice had frozen over the teethed surface of jumar, making it practically an insignificant equipment. However, it was jumar, that could truly safeguard climbers in that terrible wilderness. We managed to get rid of the ice as we footslogged and By 1:00 Pm we reached camp 3.
Camp 3 was established on slopes by digging trench in deep snow. It was a very small place, where each tent had 4 members as opposed to 3 at camp 2 and 1 at basecamp! Kiran, I along with our Sherpas Phurba and Tenzing were together in our tent. 12-13 tents were crammed on that slope. From here, views of Mt. Jaanu, Mt. Kumbhakarna, were utterly different. We were already above clouds. Discomfort was at its peak when we landed our asses inside the tent and with considerable efforts, tried to remove crampons and boots. Tenzing dai made hot orange juice and offered some nuts and biscuits; while Phurba set himself on a marathon task to prepare meals for four of us. From this point, we were to use supplemental Oxygen; even while sitting/ sleeping inside the tent. I didn’t really feel like a need of a supplement. So, I asked Bhushan if I should really use it or save it for next day. He advised me to use it as it helps recover faster and certainly avoids any potential damage to grey cells.
Inside the tent, both Phurba and Tenzing were exceptionally hospitable and courteous to us. Perhaps Mama had told them to be particularly careful with the two newbies; or they truly were that caring by their very own nature. Both were urging us to eat and drink a lot. They spoke broken English and often sought help from Hindi words. Phurba was better but Tenzing would after a couple of hindi words, drift into his Nepali mother tongue letting us to decipher what he spoke. Both Kiran and I had began to enjoy their company as they sounded quite assuring and amusing in that horrifyingly remote region.
We decided to dine by 5:00 and rest well for next days ascent to camp 4. Phurba cooked Champa, a typical Sherpa meal of Corns, spiced with chilly, which is boiled and served. Kiran probably didn’t like it much, so he munched on dal rice. These two Sherpas were so foody that they had brought ready to eat Yak meat even at camp 3. So far, I had learnt that for human bodies, it is difficult to digest heavy meals even like roti and dal; let alone any meat at high altitude. But the Sherpa deo were devouring quite easily. Phurba offered me to taste. Very enthusiastically, but with some anxiety, I ate it. It was slightly spicy and juicy. I loved it. I took a few more spoonsful and prayed that it works in my favour. I couldn’t believe that I was breaking some of the fundamental rules of high altitude – not to eat heavy food. However, my body was so well acclimated that I could digest any damn thing.
After the dinner, I chatted with the two brothers. To be honest, both looked as if they were in their early 20s. I couldn’t believe that Phurba had a son in 10th std while Tenzing too, though looked like a teenager, had 2 kids. Both had worked their way from being porters to becoming outstanding guides on high altitude. Both had experience of summits like Everest, Makalu, and technical mountain like Ama Dablam. All Sherpas considered Tenzing as the strongest Sherpa of the season. It was their first climb to Kangchenjunga. And immediately after, kj, they were to leave for K2. Admiring their fitness, their modesty and their dedication in serving their clients so well, I fell asleep.
Next day, at around 6:00 AM, our other members were still getting ready, but Phurba and Tenzing urged us to start moving towards camp 4. Sole purpose was to reach camp 4 as early as possible and then rest for at least 4-5 hrs before moving for the summit push.
The climb was shorter, but we were to scale 500 m vertical height. Within first 15 minutes we faced a very challenging 50-60 ft. ice wall with some overhanging section. Jumaring up with supplemental Oxygen and the mask system was very tedious. Additionally, there was an anchor on that steep section, where, we had to switch jumar from one rope to another. I totally struggled to jumar up and it was a bit scared too. If this was how the start towards camp 4 was, how would the summit push treat me? I rested for a couple of minutes and waited for Kiran to join me. Soon, all our team members joined in and I felt slightly comfortable. There was a long diagonal traverse, followed by a steep ascent. At the top of the steep climb, was a huge flat terrain, from where entire summit route could be seen. Camp 4 was though not yet in sight but was now surely in our range. While sipping water, in a bright sunlight, Phurba showed us Mt. Makalu (5th highest mountain) towards north-east side. In the next couple of hours, we trudged steadily over a couple of icy humps and reached camp 4. It was 11:00 AM.
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