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expedition report - part 2 Base Camp - High Camp At Base Camp, our tents were
buffeted by high winds. That night, a
snowstorm swept in and it lasted till morning. Despite our carefully
positioning and guying of our sleeping tents, the guys’ tent was blown
down. Our dining tent also did not survive the night. After an eventful morning
spent setting up and reinforcing the tents properly, the weather
relented, allowing us newbies some hours to practise placing snow
anchors, crevasse rescue and of course self-arrest on the slopes below
Neddy’s Thumb. To our surprise and the disappointment of our trainer
Roz, we could hardly fall far or fast enough in the soft snow, to make
self-arrest dramatic, or even necessary. Despite being on a steep slope,
we hardly slid more than 1 metre and just got lodged in the snow almost
immediately. Fears of falling quickly evaporated, allowing a mad-cap
session of free-style tumbling down the powdery slopes. The next morning, we left the luxury of Base Camp behind as Mingma and the four of us left Base Camp for High Camp. It took us 7 hours to reach Eastern High Camp on the Paldor Glacier East. Eternal and exhausting. High Camp was placed near the
foot of the South-eastern flank of Paldor. Across the glacier, a range
of sharp peaks – Bodkin, Pin Flake etc. - looked invitingly near. We
made a short recce to acclimatize and also to break trail through the
deep powder across the glacier. The South-East Ridge was heavily
corniced. Moreover, on the approach trail to gain the South-East Ridge,
new crevasses yawned wide beside the headwalls. This extinguished our
hopes of going by the Cleare-Howell route. We had to climb via
Tilman’s route and Windy Col. |
the
peak
new! expedition report |
an alpine skills development project
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We woke to find the dining tent missing and tables and chairs buried in the snow.
New and improved: climbing rope guylines. Spindrift comes off Paldor in the background.
Roz showing how to place a snow anchor.
L-R: Sham, Mingma, Lay Hoon, Cathy and Rozani's pack are all set to go to High Camp.
High Camp on Paldor Glacier East. Note the rockfall debris.
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