This is it: Huascaran 6768m!!

The Big One will be the Huascaran, or will not be. If you have read my last post, I have now found some suitable boots, and have booked a similar trip to Peru to attempt the climb of the Huascaran, Peru's highest mountain and South America's third summit. Maybe slightly less technical than the Alpamayo, but 400m higher than the Chopicalqui, that should be challenging enough. Apparently, 3 people who summited on the Alpamayo+Chopicalqui expedition last summer are now attempting this Huascaran, so it certainly is serious enough an objective!

I don't know a lot about this expedition, except that I have to go now. If I stayed home 2 more months I probably wouldn't get much fitter, but would have 2 months to create opportunities to get unfit. My girlfriend will be busy in July but free in most of August, so if I'm back on 2^nd August it works out perfect. At work there will be a whole new lot of things kicking-off in August and September, so probably a good call to be here in that season.

All-in-all timing is good, just a little bit unplanned and unexpected, but I have the luxury of flexibility, a rewarding prerogative. I'm also quite happy to just go, not think and stress about it for another 2 or 3 months. There's lot of fine-tuning to do before I go, keeping me busy enough to not overthink it.

The gear:

I tried my brand new Spantik boots on, learnt how to tighten them in such a way that they respond to the command of my feet, but don't squeeze the feet to death – the last thing you would want at 6700m of elevation. The rest of the equipment I either have or will borrow, mostly from Ulf my colleague from Mannheim who has a little palmares of 6000m peak climbs. Being my first one, I don't even know what I don't have but should have, so I'm highly relying on him for the equipment checklist, and for the equipment itself!! I thought my alpinism gear was starting to be decent, but I realise that 6000-7000m climbing is a whole different class. Not playing around in Chamonix any more, boy!

The organisation:

„Terres d'Aventures“ is the organisation I used in 2010 for the Kilimanjaro trip. I kind of trust them, also because they are well-known in France. When you spend those sums on a trip to the extreme, you want to be a bit wary of who you give it to. I had a shortlist of 4 organisations which I somehow had some trust in. Terre d'aventure is one of them. You can find the trip description at:

http://www.terdav.com/Produit/Fiche/ASC010/huascaran-6768-m

The costs:

All this is costing me a fortune in equipment, late flight booking, transfers to Paris and airports, leave time, but with the idea of „The Big One“ I knew it would cost a lot, so I try not to think about it when I throw a big part of my savings into various websites... International banking is not making this whole aspect easier: the german debit cards are useless, the german Visa card also happens to not work on most websites, the french Visa card sends you a text message with a confirmation code for internet transactions, except it only takes french phone numbers... It reminds me the time when I bought my car in Germany, or the time when I booked the Kilimanjaro trip in 2010... It's hard to earn money, and it's hard to spend it the way you want too!

Practically:

I am flying on Thursday, I will already go to Paris on Wednesday night. Of course communication will be difficult while I'm over there, and I don't think Terre d'Aventure have a page with updates from their ongoing expeditions. I'll try to keep my girlfriend updated, if you're anxious you can ask her what I'm up to, but I also suspect I might only be able to send a text message every 5 or 6 days! Unless you read in the news that some french people have frozen to death in Peru, I'm fine!

Option #6: Alpamayo 5947m & Chopicalqui 6354m - close call

After hours and hours looking for the right peak, my attention was caught by South America (with some advice I must admit). And all of a sudden I saw this picture of the summit of the Chopicalqui (see below), a 6354m summit in Peru.

Photo from Mountain Madness

I immediately wanted to be there giving an assault on the beautiful summit. This expedition also involves climbing the Alpamayo at 5947m, a more technical climb graded AD, involving prolonged front-pointing at amazing altitude.

Photo from Terre d'aventures

So last night I sent a text to my girlfriend asking for her permission to go. I got it later in the night. Today is monday, my boss was back from holiday and I cheekily asked if I could get 3 weeks leave starting this Friday. Given the holiday planning of our whole team and the current status of my projects, this could work. I called the agency organising the expedition, the guy said a dropper left one place empty for this expedition, he checked my climbing history, and said he would get back to me about flight availability. He rang me later in the afternoon with the good news: for "only" 130€ extra, I could be in. Compared to the costs of flying, hiring the guide, buying the gear, this was a detail so I asked him to send me a final proposal. He needs my final confirmation and payment by tomorrow 12pm. For an insight into this expedition click on:

http://www.terdav.com/Produit/Fiche/ASC084/alpamayo-5947-m-%E2%80%93-chopicalqui-6354-m


In the mean time a checklist was running through my head. Kitbag and sleeping bag both suited for high altitude, I can probably get from a colleague. Boots... Bummer I need some boots. So after work I went to this place the colleague recommended in Ludwigshafen, clearly stated the objective: I'm going to Peru climb Alpamayo three days from now, I kind of need some boots. I had already had a brief discussion about boot models with my mountain guide, so when I pointed at one of them I looked like I knew what I was doing. Then I looked stupid when I didn't know which socks I would take. Now with two pairs of socks on, I started trying out some astronaut-like boots. both of the makes and models I wanted were not available in my size, and the other ones were not fitting right either. Tried about 5 pairs, some with additional saules, but some hurt and some were too wide.

I decided to not take a flyer with my feet's safety. On the Mont Blanc last year I understood that cold could be stronger than me. My left big toe is just about back to normal sensation (no worries it didn't look or feel bad, just weird). At 6000m, when front pointing for hours and hours, if the toes hit the front at every banging of the crampons in the ice, you finish with broken toes or something. If the shoes are too tight, you finish without toes. If you haven't had the time to practice with your boots, wear them to walk around and climb, it hurts so bad you can't finish and have to turn around half-way up. Not good enough. You'll always hear stories of people venturing in mountains with insufficient equipment and still succeeding, but nobody relates the embarrassing losses of toes, fingers or more which happen all the time at 6000m.

Would have been beautiful to embark on such a trip at such short notice, but anybody with an ounce of wisdom would not do it. Today's learning point is: equipment for summer mountaineering in Chamonix has nothing to do with winter mountaineering or high-altitude expeditions.

The Alpamyo and Chopacalqui remain interesting objectives. My guide confirms the Alpamayo would be an appropriate challenge for me, not overly difficult but a good start for 6000m climbing. Let's say the Mera&Island Peak idea might well have revealed disappointing. South America might be better suited for technical 6000m mountain climbing. However July/August is the season, but I'm not free in August. September is slightly late, still a couple of options in Bolivia (for a next post!), October woudl be Nepal. To be continued....

Alpamayo, not overly technical, but at almost 6000m that will be enough of a challenge for me!

To lead or be guided?

 
I have had the feedback a couple of times that climbing mountains behind a guide is almost buying success, or playing too safe, or overrating yourself, or being a pussy etc... Some of the people sharing this kind of opinion have never put crampons on, or have only played around on glaciers. So before telling me all about guided mountaineering and its flaws, they should probably try it themselves.

Guides give you access to a different dimension. You can pretty much climb and progress at the best of your ability, without much buffer. This brings two massive rewards: first, you are climbing routes you would never have dreamt of, you get to places very few people have been to. The motivations of alpinists to climb vary within a broad range of emotions, but in practical terms they tend to translate among other things into the will to access such unique places. Second, climbing long routes close to your limit makes you improve and learn faster than anything else would. For instance: if you start ice-climbing by yourself, you will make slow progress. With a guide, after a couple of routes you will find yourself climbing ice walls in altitude in the middle of a long mixed route, a whole different ball game and a different kind of fun.

Guides are inspiring. Beyond their experience and knowledge, it is probably the fact that you trust them with your life that makes the relationship special. They can take you on any route you pick, can get you out of virtually any situation, and when they climb without clients they achieve major mountaineering feats. My guide opened a ridiculous route in the North face of Les Droites the winter before I started climbing with him. The summer before that, he opened a route on an Alaskan summit. When we were together in a hut I picked two mountain magazines one after the other. In both of them there were articles with photos relating his climbing successes. Following this guy makes you feel special, a bit like playing football in your garden with a professional footballer.

There is a very particular relationship in a team of alpinists. The fact that you pay the guide to be roped with you can slow down the process of becoming climbing partners, and the share of responsibility is highly unfair. You can't really call a guide and his client "partners". But still, once you've been out on many routes with the same guide, he knows you in a way that nobody else ever will.

What a guide does when out on a mountain is first of all look after your safety. He interprets the route, the snow, the temperature, the weather, the altitude to adjust the climb to thes safety-affecting parameters. He accelerates all rope manoeuvers by setting up belays and placing protection like it's second nature, a bit like when we type a text message without really thinking about our fingers. He also makes sure you are still in condition to carry-on and finish the route, knowing what's best for you, slowing down or pacing up when required, choosing the progression mode, the length of the rope, the clothing to put on or take out.

A guide fee for a challenging route requires rigorous budgeting, but one must understand that the guide can only work when weather permits, and when people want to climb mountains or ski down them. Apart from the peak weeks of winter and summer, only week-ends are really source of revenue. There's no client to pay him if he's sick or incapacitated. The Lamborghinis you see in the palace villas of Chamonix do not belong to mountain guides! Additionally, the responsibility that the guide accepts has a price. He will not leave you to die alone, even if it means simply diing together like it regularly happens.

Of course leading a party of alpinists is the best experience ever, but unless both are completely nuts, you can only lead on terrain much easier than your maximum. The responsibility of the leader is tremendous, all those things guides do you have to remember and apply. You must evaluate objective dangers, make the calls and be able to lead your partner out of trouble, even if it means climbing an ice wall or jumping crevasses. Coming back to the initial comment about the "almost too easy" solution of guided tours, the picture above illustrates the meaning of it. The little rocky bits on the left is what I currently feel confident leading. The rocky triangle on the right is where I feel confident following my guide through. Different story, different fun. I have started taking my uncle or a friend on easy routes, and I must say breaking trail where there is no track is exhilarating (see below pictures). I would love to do more leading on manageable routes, but I'm missing partners. However, nothing will replace the undertaking of challenging routes with the support of the man that can make it happen.

So many of them

So after I heard I might suffer disappointment and even boredom by attempting the Mera Peak, I am on the hunt again for 6000m peaks to climb in October/November. I'm pretty sure I want to go to Nepal, and I could probably attempt a 7000m peak, but such expeditions cost a LOT of money, take a bit longer than I can afford off-work, and the acclimatisation challenge makes any technical difficulty a gamble in the short time most expeditions give you to attempt the climb. So not the safest bet, although in the future if I had money and time I would definitely try one of these.

More "affordable" are the mountains classed as "trekking peaks" in Nepal, a good part of them above 6000m. Now it's really difficult to gauge the technical difficulty of each of them, and their levels of objective dangers. Once you get out of "everybody's mountain", the most climbed peaks in the region, it's really difficult to find the right one for you. Just like it's difficult to find the right expedition provider.

A couple of people have told me I should consider South America, which offers a number of 6000m mountains with slightly technical climbing. For some reason I want to go to Nepal, but now I'm looking at mountains "from which you don't even see the Everest", one of the most fascinating features of the area. Although you're never far away from an 8000m peak, the advantage of the Mera Peak is that you're right next to the Everest&Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu etc...

Pictures and websites all look very black and white, a mix of snow, ice and rock. Maybe it's because I keep researching when I get back from work, spending a few more hours in front of a computer screen in fading daylight, that it all looks pretty grim. It's when I'm in the mountains that I actually feel the thrill, and I know it's what I enjoy most. Over-organising and over-thinking is starting to get me!

Should I stop those projects and save the money to try the crazy routes I dream of in the alps, the Aiguille Verte, the Kuffner, the Innominata, why not even the Jorasses? If I'm going to follow a guide anyway, it might as well be the one I know and I'm happy giving money to! For trekking and climbing in Nepal you can find never ending lists of mountains, you just look at numbers and grading to make your mind up. I like the size of the Mont Blanc range, it's big enough to offer almost endless opportunities (for someone who doesn't work there), but it's got a kind of cosy atmosphere. You're always in sight of the Mont Blanc, and although I only wish to be alone on my mountain, I like to have around me some peaks I've been to. Going to Nepal or South America feels a bit like climbing somebody else's mountain...

Right now I'm looking at the Naya Kanga (5844m), the Hiunchuli Peak (6441m), and some expeditions doing a combo of "trekking peaks", like: Yala Peak and Kangja La, Yanapaccha and Chopakalki, or even a 29 days marathon up Gokyo Ri/ Kalar Patar/ Pokalde/ Lobuje East/ Island Peak.

And all this time I spend looking stuff up is some time I don't spend training or sleeping, both much needed for the success of my mountain week-ends, which in turn are part of the training for the big mountain climbing... Any clues, anyone?

Chamonix: a new start for my Big One project?

 So in Week 22 of this year, after a nice resting week with my girlfriend in Bretagne, I got the opportunity to refine my mountain climbing. These 2 weeks of holidays explain why this blog didn't develop much recently! I made the most of one week of good weather in the middle of a long dark stretch of grim weeks. The winter has been dragging very late, so we had superb snow conditions up there, combined with brilliant weather. A little account follows, I tried to limit the number of pictures to avoid overloading the blog.

It all started with a day on a little cliff above Argentière, rock climbing with my uncle. I even led on a 5a rope length, surprising myself. A climbing team doesn't become a team in a day, but we certainly achieved something on that day. If only that, we have learnt the hard way about each other's capabilities, as until now we were only comparing two different grading systems from our local climbing spots. My uncle can just about lead on routes where I can just about follow, so sounds like a good way to both get our challenges! 11 or 12 ibexes were around, making the day even more special in the Mont Blanc range scenery!

In May only the Aiguille du Midi lift is open, limiting thereby the options if you want to avoid spending the week on an approach march to your route, carrying water, tent, food etc... So on the Sunday we abseiled from the bridge between the north and central pitons of the Aiguille, then down a couloir to reach the base of an ice gully "La Passerelle", TD- with M5 mixed climbing. Very good warm-up hammering the ice tools into ice&snow and hooking on rocky edges. Up to 85° upright, just scary enough but relatively safe when you follow a guide! The top of the route is about the halfway point of the Arête des Cosmiques, so a little hike to the summit ends a perfect day!

The fine weather on monday saw my uncle and I for our first tour together in high-mountain without guides. We refined our rope techniques and protection placing flair in the Traverse of the Pointes Lachenal. Very nice acclimatisation day at 3600m above sea level. Quite an experience as well to be out there with your uncle!

Tuesday afternoon, having rested quietly, my guide and I get up to the Plan de l'aiguille to stay overnight at the refuge. 4am wake-up, and up the snow-covered moraines to the base of the "rectified" Mallory-Porter couloir. Followed by three parties of military high-mountain apprentices, we get up the couloir on easy snow slopes. Technically easy, only a good test of stamina and even of acclimatisation as you near the summit of this 1500m height gain route. Beautiful AD+ route, and in fantastic conditions that day, just the way you would want it to be!

This confidence build-up saw me accepting to attempt the Frendo spur on the Saturday. A clear night on Friday evening guaranteed decent re-freezing, but only partial as we experienced soft snow on the approach after a 3am wake-up. There were still lots of snow, making this "D" route with up to 5a free climbing easier on the rocky sections. Ice axe catching well in the ice/snow, and some rocky lengths coudl even be avoided by taking snowy slopes. There were still a fair few lengths of rock sections, to be climbed mostly with crampons. Rock climbing is definitely my weakness, although I can really notice some improvement against a year ago (OK I didn't even have my own climbing shoes back then!). At the end of it, after a couple of painful nkee hits and a bit of swearing, I joined my guide below the snow and ice top section. After a power break, we attacked the snowy upward arete with void on both sides, which I never realised could exist on the Frendo spur. There I noticed the acclimatisation difference with Wednesday, as at the same height and with more hours of climbing in the legs, I had no issue getting up the snowy slopes. Spending the Thursday resting at 3800m was definitely a good call! At the top of the route you have to get around a big piece of boulder, usually to the East, but because of the burning sun and its effect on the snow we took a right. On the western side, the snow was quite hard and in 4 rope lengths we reached the top. The last 60m length was a simple ice wall, maybe up to 70°... Good job we had our gully practice the sunday before! ANd all of a sudden you're on the magic ridge leading to the Aiguille du Midi, in the midst of all alpinists going back or going down, where guides salute each other, going in 30 seconds from total wilderness to a get together on the Midi ridge!

My holiday with Anja in Bretagne was fantastic, but as this blog is geared towards mountain stories it is here more relevant to tell you how fantastic my Chamonix week was. Later discussions made me realise that I could be disappointed by the Mera/Amphu Lhapcha/Island expedition I have in mind. There are no technical difficulties in those climbs, compared to what I've done this week. So I suppose I'm now on the hunt again for a summit to climb that will be one or two grades more technical, more challenging. Maybe the Baruntse just won back some credit? to be continued.......

My Big One?

As I started talking to people about my blog and more importantly my project itself, I found 2 of them who summited the Mera Peak. There is a debate about the actual altitude of the summit, currently estimated above 6400m. The more I think about my project, the more I think my decision will favour the Mera Peak, but „with style“. By this I would mean crossing the Amphu Lapcha pass after conquering the Mera Peak, and then climbing the Island Peak.

The Mera Peak, although pretty high (very subjective statement on my behalf), is known as an „easy“ wander up a glacier. If you take care of your acclimatisation in the previous days/weeks, the Mera Peak should not be too much of an issue, allowing you to conquer the „highest trekking peak“ of the Himalayas. Meaning without ridiculous effort you can summit a 6400m+ mountain. I make it sound like a walk in the park, but in further posts I will have to explain that it's still far from easy to summit at that kind of altitude. These days the real summit is sat above a roughly 50m wall which you need one last shot of power to ascend. From „base camp“ and from the summit you can see the Cho Oyu, Everest, Lhotse, Makalu and Kangchenjunga. This alone is good enough a reason to go for this option!!

 The sight from the Mera Peak over a bunch of 8000m Mountains.

This Amphu Lapcha pass seems like an interesting challenge. No real technical move expected, but ease with crampons and ice axe is required to progress through seracs up to the pass. Then some abseiling and a walk down to the area below the Island Peak, which involves walking past the Baruntse. This sounds like an amazing experience in itself!

Amphu Lapcha Pass is not a walk in the park!

Island Peak, unlike I've said earlier in this blog, is slightly more technical, only because of this „little“ wall that has to be ascended. Doing the trip in this sequence, acclimatisation shouldn't be a problem anymore at this stage, so Island Peak should be doable.

This little wall on the Island Peak would not be an issue at 3000m, but at 6000m it's a different story!

This expedition would give me the best chances of success on a 6000m peak that requires basic mountaineering skills. It would show me some of the most amazing mountains on the planet, allowing me to claim Nepal on my beginner's mountaineer resume. I might be able to go bigger and higher, but like I've done in alpine adventures, a decent build-up starting with reasonable objectives carries the least risks of me giving up at the first try because it's too crazy/cold/dangerous/tiring etc... I regard a Mera Peak + Amphu Lhapcha + Island Peak expedition as something crazy enough anyway, totally fitting the purpose of my „The Big One“ project.

Now I'm pretty sure about what I want to do, the next steps are:

- Pick the organisation that will work the best for me, the most practicable compromise of quality, safety, price, dates, service. Definitely a subject for a further post.

- List and procure the required equipment. Also definitely worth a couple of posts. Seems like my alpine gear will not do the trick!

- Train hard enough to be fit for purpose, but easy enough not to be totally broken when flying to Nepal (nor 10 years later when my knees can't take any more of this!). Also a good point to discuss on this blog!

Altitude

In a number of activities, going the extra yard tends to be harder than the couple of yards just before. If you run a 10K, it will be very demanding to add another kilometer onto it, although running one kilometer might sounds like a piece of piss for you. If you work 50 hours a week, the 51st hour will be extremely painful, a lot more than the first hour of that week (well, depending on the night before I suppose!). For a number of natural reasons, it goes the same with altitude. I regularly jog 450meters of positive elevation here in Heidelberg, but when you're at 3000m, the next 450m will take you a lot more energy. If you're at 4000m you might start wondering if you're even able to do the extra 450m and you don't stand a chance if you didn't prepare. At 5000m, you might actually put yourself in real trouble by attempting further elevation gain without adequate acclimatisation.

The following website is amazingly interesting for those who want to know more about high altitude: http://www.altitude.org/high_altitude.php

Basically air gets thinner with altitude, and the closer you are to the poles the less oxygen you will find at a given altitude. Your body needs the oxygen to keep going, so you start breathing harder and faster and your heart starts beating harder and faster to keep muscles and brains fed. With lower air pressure, a red cell will carry less oxygen than it would at sea level. At a certain altitude this won't suffice, as your lungs and heart cannot race forever. This is where you need long periods of rest so that your body adapts to the fact that there is simply less air to breathe. Your body starts producing more red cells, so that you can capture more oxygen out of a given amount of air going through your lungs. With more red cells, your blood becomes thicker and therefore harder to pump.

The best way to acclimatise is to rest at high altitude, ideally spend a night up there. In the alps you can stay over at one of the huts, try ot catch some sleep. After a couple of days going around in the mountains, you might attempt to climb up to 4000m, maybe 4200m, but to have a go at a Mont Blanc and its 4810m, you need almost a week of acclimatisation, making this summit more challenging than it looks. On the Kilimanjaro we spent the whole week accliimatising at altitudes between 3000m and 4600m before attempting the summit (5895m). On the website above, I read that this is nonsense and we were not properly acclimatised when attempting the summit. Testosterone might get you there, but you're putting yourself in danger!

Some medicines might help you bear the effects of altitude for a given amount of time, but the only way to keep going is to spend time acclimatising. On the summit day (or night) of Kilimanjaro our little group was affected in various ways by the high altitude: cold, headache, belly ache, dizziness, loss of balance, loss of consciousness, heart&lungs limit.

On summits above 6000m, you would typically set-up a base camp around 4500-5000m, and wander to higher altitudes on one or two days-trips to further stimulate your body acclimatisation process. Depending on the altitude you're trying to reach, you will then move to your advanced camps and have a go at the summit. For Mount Everest there are typically 3 or 4 acclimatisation climbs from base camp before climbers attempt the 8848m summit, most of the time with additional supplies of oxygen.

Of course the temperature falls with altitude, so you don't only fight the lack of oxygen, but also arctic temperatures. Altitude complications include hypothermia (dying of cold), acute mountain sickness, high-altitude pulmonary oedema, high-altitude cerebral oedema. Above 7500m your body is not able to acclimatise, it can only deteriorate. This is called the death zone, a countdown to your death. Depending on people and on your preparation, you have a certain number of hours to live before you die. If you can't reach your summit before then, you have to hurry back down the mountain. And by the way, forget helicopters. Above 4000m-4500m, there is not enough air for them to fly.

Objective danger

The first couple of times I heard "objective danger", it puzzled me as the objective in extreme sports should be to stay out of danger. A few weeks later I understood that danger is not THE objective, it is objective =)

Objective dangers are the risks you can identify besides the human factor. Of course your condition, training, equipment, the weather are factors which impact the overall level of danger on a route. Objective dangers are the things which are objectively putting you in a dangerous position when you're on the route: steepness, loose rocks, seracs, altitude, known avalanche trajectories, retreat possibilities, isolation... For instance, the normal ascent route on the Baruntse, although very high with its 7129m, is rated as "objectively safe".

If you're evolving on a steep slope, the slightest mistake or tumble is more likely to see you fall hundreds of meters below. On some faces, depending on the season, the altitude and the exposition, rock might be frozen in the morning, but warm up to the sun and become loose, therefore presenting an objcie danger of rock fall. If you don't know what a serac is, see picture above. These things all break free one day, you just shouldn't be under it the second they do. So if your route goes through a field of seracs, it is dangerous! Altitude deserves its own post, to follow later on. Avalanches tend to have a pattern in terms of where they happen. Most popular routes avoid crossing dangerous areas from an avalanche perspective. Experienced people learn to develop a sense for avalanche probability based on all sorts of factors (objective and situational), in winter and in summer. You want to be with one of them!

Had an interesting discussion last night with a colleague about danger in the mountains. Mountaineering is a highly dangerous activity. There is no mountaineering permit. Most people will try to get a level 1 diving licence before scuba-diving. But if you try scuba diving on your own as a beginner, your body will very quickly make you understand that you need technique and training. In the mountains, nothing stops you from hiring a pair of crampons, getting up the lift to the Aiguille du Midi, and venture alone on glaciers and mountains. When you realise that this is dangerous, it will already be too late: bad weather, night, exhaustion, lost, cold, too steep, return trail barred by a collapsed crevasse...

So besides the fun and self-fulfillment of alpinism, which also deserves its own post, besides the technique and the training, I see mountaineering as continous risk management. On our way back from an ice gully climb last summer, my guide saw 2 people fall off in a bergschrund, so we had to go and organise the rescue, quickly taken over by a specialised rescue squad. One of them was OK-ish, but the rescue doctor had to abseil 20 meters down the crevasse to install the second victim on a special stretcher, which we then had to pull up with brute force so it could be hooked to the helicopter and flown in to the nearest hospital. These guys went on a traverse over steep ice terrain, in light climbing shoes, a couple of meters above a major crevasse (the bergschrund is a crevasse forming between a glacier and a steeper section of a mountain). That day the weather was fine, there were lots of climbers and alpinists around, and little objective danger. But the behaviour of these guys made their situation extremely dangerous. So you're already a whole lot safer when you know what you're doing. Start learning from somebody who knows, ideally a professional high-mountain guide. Then progressively build-up and increase difficulty. Walk before you run, but most importantly scramble before you walk! Do you want to be the one being picked-up by a chopper in the middle of a steep wall? Below picture taken on the Aiguille du Peigne...

Option #5: Baruntse - 7129m

I fear just saying the number: 7129m. Would I seriously be fit enough, fortunate enough, equipped enough, acclimatised enough, having permitting conditions to successfully tick-off a 7000m peak?

Looking around for 6000m peaks, if you get greedy and just for fun look out for a 7, you find the Baruntse. It's located in the same absolutely fantastic area as the other Nepal options I have listed, meaning stunning views on magical mountains like the Everest, the Makalu "etc..."The mountain has three main ridges leading to the top, which means depending from which angle you look at it it might look like 3 different mountins. On the picture above I believe the ascent route goes to the col on the right hand side, and follows the ride to the top.

As my uncle puts it: the Mera Peak is like a Mont Blanc without technical difficulties, but 1700m higher. The Baruntse, besides being another 700m higher than Mera, seems to present a couple of rocky steps, and the slopes toward the summits can get pretty steep. A bit like the North Face of the Tour Ronde, which I climbed (with my guide leading) last October, except it's located 3000m higher in altitude, so you have about half the oxygen! Better prepare the calves for a rough time!

If I knew I could do this, it would be a no-brainer and I would book tomorrow. This is the point: do I have what it takes to conquer the Baruntse? Some websites say it's the next step for someone who climbed a 6000m peak before. I don't think my Kilimanjaro counts... I can train hard enough, I can buy loads of gear if needed, I can pay for an expensive expedition, I can pray for the weather, I might get enough holiday time, the november weather should be stable enough. What could go wrong? At this stage I don't want to focus on the possibilities for this idea to become a disaster.

Would I rather make it to a 6500m peak or reach even higher altitudes but miss the summit on the Baruntse... Big, big question! I must say there is no guarantee either that I would summit a 6500m peak. Maybe I could even make it to one of the 14 summits above 8000m, but the risk of not succeeding and the risk of undergoing big trouble rises with the altitude of the attempted summit. Where is the right limit for me this time around? Will I ever be able to get back to such height in the future to try and raise the game again, or do I have to see this as the one chance to reach the summit of my life, therefore having to make it as high as possible?

+ Once again, it's NEPAL!! I want to go to Nepal!
+ 7129m is a massive achievement. Apart from my alpine guides in Chamonix, there is nobody I know personally who reached such altitude.
+ Some expedition organisers say you can learn what you need to know about climbing during the trip, you just have to be stupidly fit. I wouldn't believe this, but it could mean my limited alpine experience should suffice technically speaking.
+ Expeditions tend to tick off the Mera Peak first, so even if you don't conquer the Baruntse, you have hopefully topped a mountain in Nepal!
+ An introduction to Himalayas style ascent: Base camp, camp 1, camp 2, and acclimatisation trips to the higher camps.
+/- It's a tough thing to haul yourself to 7129m. Even in perfect conditions, the summit day is a big, big ask on your body. The reward is as big as the effort.
- Expeditions require over a month, in the region of 34 days, which I have low chances to get from work



The summit brief from Camp2Camp: http://www.summitpost.org/baruntse/153293

Adventure Peaks expedition: http://www.adventurepeaks.com/expeditions/baruntse.htm

Summit Climb expedition: http://www.summitclimb.com/new/default.asp?vid=663&ltitle=Baruntse

Option #4: Mera Peak - 6476m

The second 6000m peak you find on the net when you're looking for mountains to climb in Nepal is the Mera Peak. It seems to be doable by anybody who's seriously fit and has used crampons and ice axe in his life. I have the crampons experience, and I can work on the fitness, so that could qualify me for a Mera Peak adventure. Of course because it is "the" obvious peak to pick, it's not as magic and you shouldn't expect to be alone at base camp. Still a nice objective, 500m higher than Kilimanjaro, Nepal style. Kilimanjaro was a hike up to 5895m, which you ascend in one week. With the added difficulty of snow, ice and crevasses, I shuoldn't be ashamed of attempting the Mera Peak. Those 500m make a massive difference, there is a point where every additional metre is a big battle and is even harder to conquer than the metre before.

Above you see what seems to be the non-climbed south face (although some nutters probably tried and might have even succeeded), the one below shows where you're supposed to arrive towards the summit -looks a lot friendlier for a 6476m mountain . As I said about the Island Peak, it's hard to be sure if you're looking at the right mountain when googling a random mountain in Nepal... Furthermore, depending on the season and the year, the place might look very different!! In fact at the following link they show two photos of the summit, 15 years apart: http://www.summitpost.org/mera-peak/150229

+ With 6476m, you don't just climb a 6000m peak to tick the "6", you go well beyond!
+ Some expeditions, although they require an even longer holiday, tackle the Island peak in the same package, ambitious but certainly seducing...
+ Nepal, the place to climb!
+ You can find an expedition of about 21 days, possibly manageable with work
+ I read you can see the 6 highest peaks in the world from the summit of the Mera Peak. I have doubts on the K2, but the other five I believe. Plus the Ama Dablam and a number of other magical summits!
+ Some agencies try to warn you about the dangers, some want you to buy their expeditions and tell you it's a straightforward walk. The descriptions of the routes that I have seen sound challenging enough for me, as much as I can represent it to myself from the other side of the world...
+ There is a time slot around November time, leaving me time to plan, prepare and train
- They keep saying on the internet that it's "the highest trekking peak in Nepal". I would like to call myself more than a trekker, but like I said I think this peak might be just challenging enough for me, regardless of where we categorise it!
- Still seems to be a "commercial summit" but I think the more I get into this project, the less I care. After all, I topped Kilimanjaro and Mont Blanc, they're much worse for that matter!

Not a lot of negatives, could well be a winner...

Description of the route (french): http://www.camptocamp.org/routes/56327/fr/mera-peak-voie-normale
Adventure Peaks expedition including the Island Peak: http://www.adventurepeaks.com/expeditions/mera-and-island-peak.htm
Mountain Madness expedition: http://www.mountainmadness.com/adventures/trek-or-climb/asia/mera-peak-trek-or-climb#trip-overview/description

Option #3: Island Peak - 6189m

The fact that you see a number of major summits from the Island Peak makes it difficult to be sure whether the photos you find on the internet are the Island Peak or another mountain which you see if you're stood on the Island Peak... I'm pretty sure the photo below is the Island Peak, and you even see people ascending what seems to be the normal route.


If you're looking for a 6000m peak to climb in Nepal, the Island Peak comes as the first obvious option. That's why it went directly to my list. With 6189m of elevation, it's slightly higher than the Kilimanjaro, but it is climbed with crampons, and it's in freaking Nepal!!! As most mountains it has a local name: Imja Tse. Below a picture of climbers reaching the summit. Looks just slightly more difficult than Mont Blanc, just that it's 1400m higher =)

Picture from adventurepeaks.com


+ Nepal, I have to go there before I die. This is a big, big plus. Climbing a mountain is something different when you're in the middle of magical mountains and all you can see is white landscapes. I experienced the magic of this in the Mont Blanc range, Nepal is just the next level (or the one after)
+ From the summit, you have a sight on the amazing Ama Dablam (6812m), Mount Everest (8848m) and the Lhotse (8516m). Wikipedia argues that the Lhotse hides the Everest, but any case the panorama from up there must be pretty awesome!
+ There are 2 seasons. One of them seems to be in October/November time, and would pass perfect for my project.
+ Although you will read below that a number of people might undermine this mountain as a climbing objective, it also means it is safely doable...
- As I explained in my previous post, I might struggle to get more than 3 weeks off-work. Most trips in Nepal require 4 weeks, this one 26 days.
- It's technically classed as trekking, although ice/crevasse/snow/cold are daily companions on this peak. It seems to be "Himalayas for begginers" or "6000m peaks for dummies".  I can't claim to be a lot more than a beginner, and you don't find every day somebody who climbs in Nepal to tell you this, but still that's slightly annoying. I like the feeling that I'm doing something totally extraordinary, and if most of the people I come across in the area tell me I'm a beginner because I'm "only" attempting the island peak, I won't feel as good as I could! In any case the photos of the "normal route" seem challenging enough for me for that altitude!
- Because it seems to be the classic option of a first 6000m, it could be that it's a pretty commercial summit as my Chamonix guide says, and therefore possibly crowded. Don't want to go to the Himalayas to climb in a line behind many other climbers...
 
Wikipedia overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imja_Tse

Moutain Madness expedition: http://www.mountainmadness.com/adventures/expeditions/asia/nepal/island-peak#trip-overview/description
Adventure Peaks expedition: http://www.adventurepeaks.com/expeditions/islandpeak.html

Timings

One of the choice criteria might move further up in the list: length of trip. After initial screening I might have a rough time asking for more than 3 weeks holidays. The good thing is that 3 weeks in a row is more or less a given, especially if I go at a time outside of the normal holiday period.

Managing to get a few days more might make the difference in picking one expedition or the other. I'll keep looking out for options and describing them here.


I suppose if I build up a real project and a proposal, I can always try to have a discussion at work to try and get approval for it. In some way the choice of the mountain depends on the time I am given off-work to climb it, but to defend a request I need to have a real, workable, achievable project.

Option #2: Denali (Mount Mc Kinley) - 6194m

Let's be clear, the only 6000m peak I could name when this project started was Mount Mc Kinley. With its 6194m of elevation, highest peak in North America, one of the seven Summits, this mountain carries its lot of myth. You can read on the internet that Mc Kinley is the official but commercial name, and that like every major peak it also has a local native name meaning "big mountain" or something similarly inventive. So alpinists and mountaineers call it Denali.

It is a challenging climb, not for beginners. My high-mountain guide from Chamonix, who climbed a fair bit in Alaska, called it one of the "commercial" summits. Meaning a lot of people attempt it, few succeed, and a fair few have problems when they realise (often too late) that this climb is beyond their ability. It is tough because it is high, and because it is so close to the arctic circle. Meaning it can get ridiculously cold up there.

On my Chamonix holidays last year, I lost the feeling in a slight bit of my left big toe. By chance 7 months later I just start feeling stuff again. Could never determine when it happened, and whether it was due to a shock or to the cold. But this certainly makes me think twice about Mc Kinley. I would love to climb it one day, so the thinking is: "why could this not be the time to climb Denali?"...

Photo from Mountainmadness.com

+ This mountain is a legend
+ This mountain is beautiful, and the surroundings are amazing too. When you're in the high camps you're looking at spectacular mountain scenery
+ English speaking country! Wherever I choose to go on expedition, I'll be with people who will speak english to me, but the thought of being in an english speaking country is somehow reassuring.
- Weather will be one of two things: very cold, or even colder
- Even if the weather was acceptable, it's a very challenging climb, which can get technical depending on conditions. Sometimes in the Mont Blanc range I am absolutely crapping myself. The same stuff after 2 weeks in Alaska and above 5000m, sounds like trouble
- The season lasts only 2 months and is in the spring, it seems July is already too late. I don't think I can fit that in my job as it currently is. Climbing outside the season is, here again, unthinkable.
- Even if I could afford a month off work in June, that doesn't give the time to train, prepare, get the equipment and plan this. There is a specificity of the Denali park: you need to register 60 days before entering. So this will most probably stay on the wishlist for later!

summit description (french): http://www.camptocamp.org/summits/107211/fr/mont-mckinley-denali
Mountain madness expedition: http://www.mountainmadness.com/adventures/expeditions/north-america/denali#trip-overview/description
Adventurepeak expedition: http://www.adventurepeaks.com/expeditions/denali.htm

Option #1: Aconcagua - 6962m

Aconcagua is the highest mountain in the western hemisphere as everybody says. I think it's technically the highest peak outside of Nepal/Himalayas area. Situated in Argentina.

+ One of the highest options I seriously consider, probably the highest one I can do (still got a couple 7000+ to check out, but seems like Aconcagua might be the max for someone like me at this stage
+ An Aconcagua expedition seems to be slightly cheaper than Nepal, although the flight to Argentina won't be cheap.
+/- The season is rather our winter time: November/December/January. I need it to be still in 2012 for the holiday. Gives me some proper time to train, but will not fit very well with work as this is the time of the year when I'm at the busiest in my current job. That can probably be worked around.
- I'm not so impatient to get to South America, and I'm a lot more impatient to get to the Himalayas. Doesn't mean there is no magic to the Aconcagua though, one of the "Seven Summits" - the highest peaks of all seven continents (maybe an idea for a further post?)
- The normal route is "simply walking", a bit like the Kilimanjaro except to get to 6962m you might need crampons, and maybe even an ice axe. I might want something a bit more snow-and-ice, even if it doesn't take me to such height... The other routes I'm not too sure about...
- I would imagine it will be crowded in the season, and such a peak can only be climbed during the season. I'm hoping somewhere in Nepal would be less crowded. Apparently in 2002, 3500 people attempted the Aconcagua, seems like an awful lot to me. I might be looking for a more intimate relationship to my mountain...
- The weather is one of two things on the Aconcagua: bad, or worse. I need to look into it a bit more, but it could well be that the chances of success are lower than some lower but snowier/icier peaks in Asia or South America
- Not the prettiest of summits on the pictures on the internet. I suppose it's not a problem in itself, but if this project is going to be like a dream, the scene has to be right too!

All in all that's a lot of cons, the only pro being the tick in the box of the 6962m (besides possibly the price but I think - within reason - the price shouldn't be the decision driver on my project).

Summit description: http://www.summitpost.org/aconcagua/150197
Normal route: http://www.mountainmadness.com/adventures/expeditions/south-america/argentina/aconcagua-normal-route#trip-overview/description
Polish traverse: http://www.mountainmadness.com/adventures/expeditions/south-america/argentina/aconcagua-polish-traverse#trip-overview/description
Alternative route: http://www.adventurepeaks.com/expeditions/aconcagua.htm

Grandes Jorasses

Non-neophytes will have noticed that the blog is currently topped by a picture of the magnificent arête de Rochefort from the Grandes Jorasses to the Dent du Géant. I don't intend to climb the grandes JOrasses any time soon, but I find this picture very inspiring. I took it from the Aiguille du Midi in the summer of 2011, my first alpine season. That day I went from the AIguille du Midi to the AIguille du Plan, it was technically my second tour with crampons, after the Arête des Cosmiques. Maybe pitched a little bit high for a second tour, but as you can see the conditions were optimal. THe snow had re-frozen pretty well the night before, and the cloud sea at around 3300 made the day just magic. I struggled on that day to cope with the altitude, with the crampning technique ( I did rip my pants open), but it was another milestone in my mountain experience. See below, just for your eyes, a couple of pictures I took on that day at 7am:

The ridge in the background starts with the Aiguille verte, then les Droites, les Courtes, at the far left the Grandes Jorasses seen from the side. At the foreground you see the ridge I took that day (behind my mountain guide!), we reached the summit of the AIguille du Plan, the highest point of that ridge. Further down that ride, the Aiguilles de Blaitière and the Grépon are just above the clouds...

At the foreground the Aiguille du Plan, our target for that day. In the background, the Aiguille Verte, a target for this year or next year. No easy route to get up there. Although I can't possibly go there without someone guiding me, I always said I would only call myself an alpinist when I succesfully make it to the summit of the AIguille Verte and safely back down. A big project in itself, for a beginner like me!

Bloggy blog...

In the last 3 days I spent an incredible amount of precious hours figuring out how best to start a blog for this proejct...

I used to have a self-designed blog, still available at: http://jeffou6182.chez.com I would have loved to just revive it (no posts since 2009), especially as back in 2009 I spent a lot of time adding the facility to add comments. The advantage is that I could customise the layout as much as I wanted.

Unfortunately the wesite provider has blocked its ftp access to foreign IP addresses. Meaning if I'm outside of France I can't upload new pages or update my website. There's a couple of ways to go around it, but unfortunately the french authorities are blocking more and more of these, to the point that for a non-proficient internet user like me it's not feasible to update my own website as long as I'm sitting in Germany. A number of people started using the ways to bypass such limitations for illegal purposes such as downloading or watching french television without paying the appropriate fees...

I then tried to open accounts with website hosts in germany or worldwide, but among those which provide mysql facilities, few are free, and those are not always stable. I started with heliohost, but had to change a number of lines in my programming, and I faced a server crash on the second day. THis discouraged me to keep doing the geeky programming. I don't have time for this like I had in the past...

I went around the providers of "blogs", and this extension of google seems to be the most customisable and easiest. Sadly it won't bend exactly to what I wanted to design, but I've learnt to be flexible, I've learnt that sometimes I shouldn't be so stubborn about my visions, and that imposed changes should be taken as opportunities to review and improve my plans.

This is the story of how I failed the medical visit because of a slight ear deficiency at a given frequency. I wanted to join the french army as an officer, to command troups and save the world. Took me some time to bite the bullet and accept that mother nature didn't want me to join (it's an interesting story, ask me about this=)). So instead I enrolled into capitalism, and suprisingly after some time I find myself thankful as by making the most of it it took me to a couple of other countries, developped a new verison of me, made me discover the mountains, without which this blog and this project wouldn't even exist, and most importantly made me meet Anja.

This is to say: let's try out a ready-made blog format and see where that takes us!

The Big One?

One day in early April 2012, I realised that:
1) I would have a lot of holidays to take this year.
2) my girlfriend wouldn't.
 
So I might have up to 4 weeks to spare. Make the most of it? Of course! Let's do something BIG! I wanted this year to be the year of the Aiguille Verte, the Frendo, the Innominata, the Kufner. One, maybe two of these routes would have made this year a success. Now it would seem I might have the time to try that, but also to try something bigger, more remote, crazier...
 
My chances of success at the AIguille Verte are not anywhere near 100%, but in 4 weeks the same engagement could take me up something BIG. I'm not sure when the next time will be that I can afford to take 4 weeks on my own, but right now I'm young, fit (I'd like to think so) and free.
 
So I basically want to have a go at a mountain of some description, higher than anything I've done before. I want to take part in an "expedition". This simple word gives me the creeps and makes my heart jumps. Fly far away, walk high up and measure myself to a summit.
 
I am still trying to grasp what is going on in my mind, but an expedition sounds like the right thing for me, a new start, a new horizon.
 
Hopefully this blog will see how I progress with the idea, it will include the philosophy in which I'm envisaging this crazy thing, it will review the possible options, it will explain the steps I take to prepare, it will detail the steps of the planning process. Let's see what happens...